Hospitals in the U.K. are confronting a new epidemic — but they aren’t fighting a bacteria or biological pathogen. Instead, they are battling malicious cyber code.
The so-called “WannaCry” ransomware is infecting and locking up tens of thousands of computers in dozens of countries.
According to security researchers, the WannaCry exploit is derived from a National Security Agency tool that was stolen and leaked by the Shadow Brokers back in April. It takes advantage of a Microsoft vulnerability for which the software giant issued a patch on March 14. Unpatched systems remained vulnerable to the threat.
