Game server rescues data

An online gaming server in Thailand was attacked by the WannaCrypt ransomware programme which has recently hit several countries around the world.

Garena Online (Thailand) wrote on their Facebook page on Saturday morning explaining the emergency closure of the online game “Blade & Soul”. The company said the online game developed by NCsoft in South Korea was closed temporarily because its server had been attacked by the ransomware. However, the company said it is in the process of getting rid of the malicious software and said no player information had been lost.

The company’s server has kept each player’s information intact for when the game comes back online, and players can immediately continue where they left off, it said. The company also said steps are being taken to improve its systems to prevent future problems and the game would be back online as soon as the maintenance work is finished.

The global cyberattack that has hit computers using Microsoft operating systems across the world used hacking tools believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

With similar attacks reported in dozens of countries, experts warned that online extortion attempts by hackers are a growing menace.

Hospitals, with their often outdated IT systems and confidential patient data, are a particularly tempting target. The extortionists tricked victims into opening malicious malware attachments in spam emails.