Ransomware Attack Raises Concerns Over Future Assaults
By MARK SCOTT and PAUL MOZURJUNE 28, 2017
Governments and organizations around the world grappled on Wednesday to contain a cyberattack
that struck parts of Europe, the United States and Asia, the second time in two months that hackers have tried to shake down computer users, threatening to delete their data unless they paid up.
“We’ll likely see more of these types of attacks in the future.”
Like the WannaCry attack last month, computers struck by the virus displayed a message
that their data had been encrypted and demanded a ransom — in this case, $300 — to decrypt it.
Still, companies and government offices worldwide appeared less affected than they were
by the WannaCry attack, notably in places like China, which was hard hit in May.
Yet as law enforcement, governments and companies from the United States to India assessed the damage of the new attack, many cautioned
that people should be prepared for such events to become a regular danger as criminals worldwide look to take advantage of the vulnerabilities in organizations’ digital infrastructure.
On the Australian island of Tasmania, computers in a Cadbury chocolate factory owned by Mondelez International,
the American food company, displayed the ransomware message, according to the local news media.