White House: Cyberattack has not affected U.S. government
President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser said Monday that the malware that has infected 300,000 computers in 150 countries so far has not infiltrated U.S. government systems.
Tom Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said three variants of the malware have been discovered and the U.S. governmentis monitoring the situation with officials in Britain.
“Overall, the U.S. infection rate has been lower than many parts of the world, but we may still see significant impacts in additional networks as these malware attacks morph and change,” Mr. Bossert said. “We had a small number of affected parties in the U.S., including FedEx. As of today, no federal systems are affected.”
Computers across the world were locked up Friday and users’ files held for ransom when dozens of countries were hit in a cyber-extortion attack that targeted hospitals, companies and government agencies. Cybersecurity experts say the unknown hackers used a hole in Microsoft software that was discovered by the National Security Agency and exposed when NSA documents were leaked online.
If Americans follow the patching information issued by the FBI, Microsoft and the Homeland Security Department, they will be protected, Mr. Bossert said.
The hackers demanded money through online bitcoin payment, but it appears that less than $70,000 has been paidin ransoms.
The global cyberattack appeared to slow on Monday.
Authorities found first suggestions of a “weak” possible link between the “ransomware” known as Wanna Cry and hackers linked to NorthKorea.
Elsewhere, there were thousands of additional infections in Asia on Monday, but the expected second-wave outbreak largely failed to materialize, in part because security researchers had defang edit.
One of those researchers was Marcus Hutchins, a young British computer expert credited with discovering a so-called “kill switch” on Friday that slowed the unprecedented Wanna Cry cyberattack. He told The Associated Press he doesn’t consider himself a hero but fights malware because “it’s the rightthing to do.”