Global Cyberattack: What We Know and Don’t Know

A quickly spreading ransomware attack is hitting countries across the world including France, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and the United States, just weeks after a ransomware attack known as WannaCry.

What We Know

• Several private companies have confirmed that they were struck by the attack, including the American pharmaceutical giant Merck, the Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk, and the British advertising firm WPP. The French multinational Saint-Gobain and a unit of the bank BNP Paribas, also said they had been hit, as did the Russian steel, mining and oil companies Evraz and Rosneft.
• Photographs and videos of computers affected by the attack show a message of red text on a black screen: “Oops, your important files have been encrypted. If you see this text then your files are no longer accessible because they have been encrypted. Perhaps you are busy looking to recover your files but don’t waste your time.”
• Kaspersky Lab, a cybersecurity firm based in Moscow, reported that about 2,000 computer systems had been affected by the new ransomware.

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