Massive cyberattack targeting 99 countries causes sweeping havoc

[mfcorey1]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/12/technology/ransomware-attack-nsa-microsoft/index.html

Hospitals, major companies and government offices have been hit by a massive wave of cyberattacks across the globe that seize control of computers until the victims pay a ransom.

Cybersecurity firm Avast said it had identified more than 75,000 ransomware attacks in 99 countries, making it one of the broadest and most damaging cyberattacks in history.

Avast said the majority of the attacks targeted Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan. But U.K. hospitals, Chinese universities and global firms like Fedex (FDX) also reported they had come under assault.

Europol said Saturday that the attack was of an "unprecedented level and requires international investigation."
The ransomware, called "WannaCry," locks down all the files on an infected computer and asks the computer's administrator to pay in order to regain control of them. The exploit was leaked last month as part of a trove of NSA spy tools.

[Sculpin Beauregard]

1. This is Russia, flexing its muscles, and is connected to political events in USA.

[Ezior]

2. Russians most affected by this attack, supposedly even the Ministry of Internal Affairs

So I'm not sure this really originated from the Russian government hackers. Maybe Russian criminals, but they might be in trouble now. Or maybe that "Russian Ministry hacked" is just disinformation by Russia and they are really not affected.

I believe this is some "normal" criminal trying to get rich. Apparently the hacking part was not very difficult, just use some NSA exploits that were leaked by some possibly Russian guys a few weeks ago.

[Sculpin Beauregard]

3. Do you realize that Russia threw out a red herring?

Make no mistake, it was Russia.

[defacto7]

4. That makes more sense since there is a simple

turn off switch within the code to dismantle itself. If it's a red herring then those who made it or those infected who are in the know can just turn it off at will and still claim they were targeted.