Hunt for the bitcoin bandits: World’s cyber police are on the trail of the gang who unleashed crippling virus
Computer specialists urgently working to stop spread of the ransom virus
Attack has locked 130,000 computers across the globe with demands for £230
Experts last night said the hacking culprits may be from Russia or the Ukraine
By MICHAEL POWELL
DailyMail.com
13 May 2017
An international army of detectives was working around the clock last night to hunt down the cyber crooks behind the hacking attack that crippled the NHS and froze IT systems in 100 countries around the world.
Computer specialists from 27 European nations were urgently trying to stop the spread of the ransom virus behind the biggest ever hacking attack of its kind.
The attack has locked 130,000 computers with a message demanding that users pay a fee of £230 in Bitcoin – a controversial internet-only currency that is traded anonymously.
Experts last night told The Mail on Sunday the hacking culprits may be from Russia or the Ukraine.
And yesterday, Europol, the European Union’s police force, announced a major investigation has been launched by its Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce.
A spokesman said: ‘The recent attack is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits.’
IT security experts said criminals had launched the ‘atom bomb’ of computer attacks after a sinister group of hackers stole a cyber ‘superweapon’ from the US intelligence services last year.
They said a cyber gang named the Shadow Brokers hacked the National Security Agency (NSA) and stole software developed by US agents to spy on Microsoft computers.
The hackers leaked the cache of hacking tools and passwords needed to unleash the virus in an online post last month – which it said was in protest against US military strikes in Syria.
The malicious software was hidden in email attachments downloaded by unwitting computer users on Friday afternoon.
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