Global Cyber Attack cripples Computers in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has not been spared by the global cyber attack that affected so far around 50,000 computers in nearly 100 countries all around the globe starting from May 12 by installing ransomware that blocks access to files.
As far as it can be assessed at the time of writing, targets in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam have been fallen victim to the cyber attackers. In Indonesia, at least two major hospitals in the capital Jakarta, Dharmais Hospital and Harapan Kita Hospital, have been struck in the ransomware cyber attack .
One of Vietnam’s leading antivirus software companies said dozens of people had reported infections.
Thailand has been mentioned as one of countries where the ransomware was said to have infected computers, but details of businesses or institutions affected are not yet known.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said no ransomware attacks have been reported as of May 13, 10am, although a map of the spreading of the malware by the New York Times suggests otherwise.
Officials in the Philippines and Singapore said there were no reports of breaches of “critical infrastructure,” but the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team said that there are indications of “isolated instances” where organisations and individuals have been affected by the attacks.
The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore revealed that the ransomware attack followed anther computer network breach at Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore in April whose aim seemingly was to steal government research data.
Other Southeast Asian countries did not report any attacks, but could probably detect them on Monday, May 15, when business resumes.
The attack began when computer users were ticked into opening malicious malware attachments to spam emails that appeared to contain invoices, job offers, security warnings and other legitimate files, but in fact were ransomware which, once activated, encrypted data on computers with older Windows operating systems. Payments of between $300 and $600 each were demanded via the digital currency bitcoin to restore access.
Researchers with security software maker Avast said they had observed 57,000 infections in 99 countries, with the UK, Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan being the top targets. Hardest hit were hospital and medical facilities in the UK, as well as large companies such as Telefonica and FedEx.
Southeast Asia has not been spared by the global cyber attack that affected so far around 50,000 computers in nearly 100 countries all around the globe starting from May 12 by installing ransomware that blocks access to files. As far as it can be assessed at the time of writing, targets in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam have been fallen victim to the cyber attackers. In Indonesia, at least two major hospitals in the capital Jakarta, Dharmais Hospital and Harapan Kita Hospital, have been struck in the ransomware cyber attack . One of Vietnam's leading antivirus software companies said dozens of people...
Southeast Asia has not been spared by the global cyber attack that affected so far around 50,000 computers in nearly 100 countries all around the globe starting from May 12 by installing ransomware that blocks access to files.
As far as it can be assessed at the time of writing, targets in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam have been fallen victim to the cyber attackers. In Indonesia, at least two major hospitals in the capital Jakarta, Dharmais Hospital and Harapan Kita Hospital, have been struck in the ransomware cyber attack .
One of Vietnam’s leading antivirus software companies said dozens of people had reported infections.
Thailand has been mentioned as one of countries where the ransomware was said to have infected computers, but details of businesses or institutions affected are not yet known.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said no ransomware attacks have been reported as of May 13, 10am, although a map of the spreading of the malware by the New York Times suggests otherwise.
Officials in the Philippines and Singapore said there were no reports of breaches of “critical infrastructure,” but the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team said that there are indications of “isolated instances” where organisations and individuals have been affected by the attacks.
The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore revealed that the ransomware attack followed anther computer network breach at Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore in April whose aim seemingly was to steal government research data.
Other Southeast Asian countries did not report any attacks, but could probably detect them on Monday, May 15, when business resumes.
The attack began when computer users were ticked into opening malicious malware attachments to spam emails that appeared to contain invoices, job offers, security warnings and other legitimate files, but in fact were ransomware which, once activated, encrypted data on computers with older Windows operating systems. Payments of between $300 and $600 each were demanded via the digital currency bitcoin to restore access.
Researchers with security software maker Avast said they had observed 57,000 infections in 99 countries, with the UK, Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan being the top targets. Hardest hit were hospital and medical facilities in the UK, as well as large companies such as Telefonica and FedEx.
