New York, NY – A global uproar occurred toward the end of last week as a massive cyberattack was reported in several countries. According to Defense One correspondent Andrienne LaFrance, the attack “disrupted business and health systems in at least a dozen countries Friday [May 12], including at least 16 hospitals across England that were crippled by a large-scale ransomware attack.”
The New York Times reported that “the hacking tool was leaked by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, which has been dumping stolen National Security Agency [NSA] hacking tools online beginning last year. Microsoft rolled out a patch for the vulnerability last March but the hackers took advantage of the fact that vulnerable targets—particularly hospitals—had yet to update their systems.”
Reuters reported some of the hospitals victimized by the attack were diverting ambulances to other centers and asked people to stay away from emergency rooms unless they needed urgent care.
ABC News reported Monday, May 15 that the cyberattack has debilitated more than 200,000 organizations in over 150 countries. The network spoke with software engineer Quincy Larson who stated, “it’s absolutely critical that you install updates to your operating system and to all your software as they become available. One of the reasons why you download the updates is not just for new features but also for additional security. Individuals are particularly vulnerable because they don’t necessarily have recently updated software and one of the best ways you can prevent ransomware or malware in general from getting on your computer is just to make sure that your operating system is updated to the latest version. Finally, just be vigilant. You need to constantly look out for emails that are suspicious and you need to err on the side of not downloading random files.”