The virus is usually covertly installed on to computers by being hidden within innocent-looking emails containing links, which users are tricked into opening. Security researchers said they observed some victims paying via the digital currency bitcoin, though they did not know what percent had given in to the extortionists.
More than 75,000 computers have reportedly been affected in 99 countries around the world, hitting Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan the hardest according to cybersecurity firm Avast.
Asian countries reported no major breaches on Saturday, but officials in the region were scrambling to check and the full extent of the damage may not be known for some time.
Dozens of hospital trusts across the country have been plunged into chaos this evening with scheduled appointments cancelled and emergency patients diverted following a huge cyber attack. Portugal Telecom and Russia's MegaFon were infected as well.
In the United States, FedEx acknowledged it had been hit by malware and was "implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible".
A worldwide ransomware campaign using a stolen NSA hacking tool is now underway, consisting of more than 45,000 attacks in 74 countries, including the crippling of Britain's main healthcare system, Spain's Telefonica and Russia's MegaFon, according to global media reports and Kaspersky Lab.
Infections of the worm appeared to have fallen off significantly after a security researcher bought a domain that the malware was connecting to, by chance undermining the malware's effectiveness.
Attacks then began being reported across many other countries, including Turkey, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, the U.S., China, Spain, Italy and Taiwan with the majority of affected computers in Russian Federation.
The attack appeared to exploit a vulnerability purportedly identified for use by the US National Security Agency and later leaked to the internet.
"These attacks underscore the fact that vulnerabilities will be exploited not just by our security agencies, but by hackers and criminals around the world".
Ransomware is the most common form of malware reported to the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre, a report said.
Socialist party dead, ex-French PM says, backing Macron's movement
An opinion poll last week predicted however that his party is set to emerge as the largest in the parliamentary elections. It could not be seen to giving anyone, including ex-prime ministers, special privileges, he warned.
The tool was leaked by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, which has been dumping stolen NSA hacking tools online since previous year.
Responding to Friday's cyberattack, Reuters reported Microsoft saying that it was pushing out automatic updates to defend Windows systems from the Wanna Cry attack.
Microsoft released a patch to address the vulnerability, but networks that did not adopt it would have remained vulnerable. "Today our engineers added detection and protection against new malicious software known as Ransom:Win32.WannaCrypt", a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement.
New Zealand's spy agencies are monitoring a massive global cyber attack, but there are no reports of it reaching NZ.
Britain's National Health Service is a source of pride for many Britons but faces substantial budget issues.
FedEx appears to be the first USA -based target.
It demands payment in three days or the price is doubled, and if none is received in seven days, the files will be deleted, according to the screen message.
"We'd ask patients to use A&E wisely; the NHS nationally is investigating the full extent of the attack". The interior ministry said on its website that about 1,000 computers had been infected but it had localized the virus.
"This is a major cyber attack, impacting organisations across Europe at a scale I've never seen before", said security architect Kevin Beaumont.
At least 30 health service organisations in England and Scotland were infiltrated by the malicious software, while many others shut down servers as a precautionary measure, bringing added disruption.
Comments