Global cyber attack that uses stolen NSA superweapon cripples the world – as hackers hold every British hospital to ransom and cause chaos in 74 countries
British hospitals and clinics forced to turn away patients on Friday when their computers became injected by ‘ransomware’ in massive cyber attack
Cyber attack rapidly spread and infected computers across the globe
Malicious software blocked access to computers and demanded payments to restore access and scrambling data
Experts say attack used hacking tools identified by the US National Security Agency in documents that were stolen
Hackers are believed to have exploited the NSA code, which was released to the world by a group known as the Shadow Brokers last month
Victims have been reported in 74 countries including Germany, Spain and USA
Computers in Russia’s interior ministry were among those affected in attack
By SCOTT CAMPBELL
DailyMail.com
12 May 2017
A global cyber attack using hacking tools widely believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency and leaked online has crippled Britain’s heath system and caused chaos around the world.
British hospitals and clinics were forced to turn away patients on Friday because their computers were infected by the ‘ransomware’ that rapidly spread across the globe and infected tens of thousands of computers in 74 countries.
The malicious software was blocking access to computers and demanding payments of as much as $600 to restore access and scrambling data. It is thought to have impacted at least 57,000 computers, including machines in the Russian government.
Security experts say the cyber attack grew out of vulnerabilities identified by the National Security Agency in documents that were then stolen and released to the world last month by a group known as the Shadow Brokers.
The hackers, who have not come forward to claim responsibility, likely made it a ‘worm’, or self spread malware, by exploiting a piece of NSA code known as Eternal Blue, according to several security experts.
The Shadow Brokers released Eternal Blue last month as part of a trove of hacking tools that they said belonged to the US spy agency.
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