Putin blames US for cyber attacks

American spy agency developed code used in virus that demands money to unblock computers

THE world’s biggest ransomware attack levelled off yesterday after wreaking havoc in 150 countries, as Russian President Vladimir Putin called it payback for the US intelligence services.

Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer Brad Smith has said the US National Security Agency developed the original code used in the attack, which was later leaked in a document dump.

“Microsoft’s leadership stated this directly, they said the source of the virus was the special services of the United States,” Putin said on the sidelines of a summit in Beijing.

“A genie let out of a bottle of this kind, especially created by secret services, can then cause damage to its authors and creators.”

Russia has been accused of cyber meddling in several countries around the world in recent years.

But Putin said they had nothing to do with the indiscriminate attack, which hit hundreds of thousands of computers by exploiting known vulnerabilities in older Microsoft computer operating systems.

Smith said he hoped the attacks would serve as a wake-up call.

He warned governments against stockpiling malicious code, lest it fall into the wrong hands, and said instead they should point out the vulnerabilities to manufacturers.

“An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen,” Smith wrote.

The cross-border police agency Europol said the situation was now stable, defusing concerns that attacks that struck computers in British hospital wards, European car factories and Russian banks would spread further at the start of the working week.

However, Britain’s health service struggled for a fourth day yesterday, as doctors across the country described their dismay as their computers suddenly stopped working on Friday, leaving them with no access to patients’ x-rays, blood test results or medical histories.

Dozens of state-run National Health Service (NHS) hospitals were hit, many closing their doors to emergency cases and cancelling routine appointments and surgery.

The cyber attack blocks computers and threatens to delete the locked files unless a ransom is paid.

But with their eyes on the June 8 general election, Britain’s opposition parties accused Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government of failing to ensure the NHS is properly protected.

Many of the almost 8 000 doctors’ surgeries in England were also affected, warning of delays as doctors reverted to paper records and appointments.

Several hospitals were still facing disruptions yesterday, with St Bartholomew’s in London cancelling appointments and warning of delays to pathology and diagnostic services. At the hospital on Friday, patient Patrick Ward had been shaved and had his catheter fitted ready for a long-awaited heart operation when the attack happened.

“I was all ready to go, then at 1.30pm the surgeon turned up and said there’s nothing we can do,” he told the BBC.

He cited concerns that if he needed a transfusion, doctors would not be able to accurately match his blood type.