Ransomware – a destructive program that freezes a computer’s documents until a ransom is paid to the hacker – is not new, but the scale of this WannaCry malware attack is “unusual,” a Europol official said.
There are numerous different varieties of ransomware that cybersecurity experts say they are seeing take on a new dimension. In the UK, the NHS was hit hard, but by Saturday morning most of the 48 people affected in England had their devices back. The NHS has not yet revealed what measures it took to deal with this.
WannaCry only affects systems running Windows. If you don't update your Windows and are not careful when opening and reading messages, then you could be at risk. You can ensure the security of your device by running updates, using firewalls and anti-malware, and always carefully monitoring messages.
Once WannaCry is inside an organization, it will hunt down unpatched devices and infect them as well. This could explain why its consequences are so severe.
It's not yet known, but some experts say it wasn't particularly sophisticated malware. The "kill switch" that stopped its spread - coincidentally found by a security scientist - may have been designed to stop the malware if it was trapped and put into what's known as a sandbox - a protected space where security experts put malware to watch what it does - wasn't properly plugged in.
