An international cyber attack on Friday struck countries including the UK and Spain, British Prime Minister Theresa May said, as security experts warned it could affect many other countries.
The UK’s state-run National Health Service declared a “major incident” after the attack, which forced some hospitals to divert ambulances and scrap operations, while in Spain several major companies including telecom giant Telefonica were hit with employees told to shut down workstations immediately through megaphone announcements.
In the United States the package delivery giant Fedex acknowledged it was “experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware”.
“We are aware that a number of NHS organisations have reported that they have suffered from a ransomware attack. This is not targeted at the NHS, it’s an international attack and a number of countries and organisations have been affected,” May said.
At least 16 organisations within the NHS, some of them responsible for several hospitals each, reported being targeted.
Forcepoint Security Labs said that “a major malicious email campaign” consisting of nearly five million emails per hour was spreading the new ransomware.
The group said in a statement that the attack had “global scope”, affecting organisations in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Mexico.
Pictures posted on social media showed screens of NHS computers with images demanding payment of $300 (275 euros) worth of the online currency Bitcoin, saying: “Ooops, your files have been encrypted!”
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.
