Ransomware attacks reported in Europe

She said Britain's National Cyber Security Center was working with the country's health service to ensure the attack was contained, while the National Crime Agency was working with them to find out where it came from.

Researchers with security software maker Avast said they had observed 57,000 infections in 99 countries with Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan the top targets.

At least 16 organisations within the NHS, some of them responsible for several hospitals each, reported being targeted. Telefónica is one of the largest private telecommunications companies in the world.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said there was no evidence that patient data had been compromised in the attack, and that it had not specifically targeted the National Health Service.

Several British hospitals say they are having major computer problems Hospitals in London, northwest England and other parts of the country are reporting problems with their computer systems as the result of an apparent cyberattack, Friday May 12, 2017.

A Telefonica spokesman told Reuters that a window appeared on its computers also demanding a bitcoin payment in order to regain control.

He said most likely it occurred this time because some of the hospitals and other organizations affected may not have applied a patch that Microsoft released or they are using outdated operating systems no longer supported by the software giant.

Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University's computer lab, said the incident is the "sort of thing for which the secretary of state should get roasted in Parliament".

Microsoft has released fixes for vulnerabilities and related tools disclosed by TheShadowBrokers, a mysterious group that has repeatedly published alleged NSA software code.

NHS England said it was aware of the problem and would release more details soon.

Spafford said ransomware typically targets those without strong security in place, such as home users and small companies.

Beaumont examined a sample of the ransomware used to target NHS and confirmed it was the same used to target Telefónica.

In Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Forth Valley said some of their GP surgeries have been caught up in the incident.

A top Russian mobile operator says it has come under cyberattacks that appeared similar to those that have crippled some United Kingdom hospitals.

The NHS blamed the Wanna Decryptor for infecting computers - an encryption-based ransomware that locks a system and its files from use unless money is paid to hackers for access.

The minister said lessons had to be learned from the attack.

"Today our engineers added detection and protection against new malicious software known as Ransom:Win32.WannaCrypt,"Microsoft said in a statement".

Microsoft on Friday said it was pushing out automatic Windows updates to defend clients from WannaCry. Forensics computer experts may be needed to investigate and provide assistance with addressing ransom demands.

NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Western Isles also confirmed they have been affected.

Russia's Interior Ministry says it has come under cyberattack.

The emergencies ministry told Russian news agencies it had repelled the cyber attacks while Sberbank said its cyber security systems had prevented viruses from entering its systems.

"Seeing a large telco like Telefonica get hit is going to get everybody anxious".

In Spain, some big firms took pre-emptive steps to thwart ransomware attacks following a warning from the National Cryptology Centre of "a massive ransomware attack".

Power firm Iberdrola and utility provider Gas Natural were also reported to have suffered from the outbreak.

In Spain, the attacks did not disrupt the provision of services or networks operations of the victims, the government said in a statement.