A worldwide ransomware cyberattack yesterday spread to thousands more computers as people logged in at work, disrupting businesses, schools, hospitals and daily life, although no new large-scale breakdowns were reported.
The full extent of the damage from the cyberattack felt in 150 nations was unclear and could worsen if more malicious variations of the online extortion scheme appear.
The initial attack, known as “WannaCry,” paralyzed computers running factories, banks, government agencies and transport systems in scores of countries, including Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Spain, India and Japan.
Among those hit were the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and companies including Spain’s Telefonica SA and FedEx Corp in the US.
About 770 computers at Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) offices were infected by WannaCry in Friday’s attack, but most have been repaired, the state-run utility said yesterday.
The incident has not affected electricity supply because the infected computers were used mainly for administrative work, Taipower spokesman Lin Te-fu (林德福) said.
As soon as the infection was detected on Saturday, the company disconnected the computers from the Internet, updated them and began repairing them, Lin said.
As of yesterday afternoon, only 152 computers had not yet been repaired, he said, adding that the work was expected to be completed by the end of the day.
Although the ransomware continued to spread at a more subdued pace yesterday, many companies and government agencies were still struggling to recover from the first attack.
In Asia, where Friday’s attack occurred after business hours, thousands of new cases were reported yesterday as people went back to work.
The nonprofit Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center said 2,000 computers at 600 locations in Japan were affected.
Companies including Hitachi Ltd and Nissan Motor Co reported problems, but said they had not seriously affected their business operations.
State media said 29,372 institutions in China had been infected, along with hundreds of thousands of devices.
Universities and other educational institutions in China were among the hardest hit, possibly because schools tend to have old computers and are slow to update operating systems and security, Internet strategy think tank ChinaLabs founder Fang Xingdong (方興東) said.
Experts urged organizations and companies to immediately update older Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows XP, with a patch the firm released two months ago to limit vulnerability to a more powerful version — and future versions — of the malware.
Microsoft’s top lawyer is laying some of the blame at the feet of the US government.
Brad Smith criticized US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA), for “stockpiling” software code that can be used by hackers.
Cybersecurity experts have said the unknown hackers who launched this weekend’s cyberattacks used a vulnerability that was exposed in NSA documents leaked online.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS