White House Orders Emergency Meetings As 2nd Wave Of WannaCry Ransomware Attack Infects More Computers

The 200,000 victims from 150 countries of the WannaCry Ransomware Attack could even rise. There is a second wave of attack that affected more computers in more countries. It prompted the White House to order emergency meetings to deal with the threat.

The earliest time when the extent of how hard the WannaCry Ransomware Attack would hit Asia is on Monday, Gizmodo reports. The ransomware, known as WanaCrypt0r 2.0, is believed to have come from a leak online made by Shadow Brokers, a hacker group. One of the sets of tools was a vulnerability in Windows.

However, the NSA reportedly kept the vulnerability from Microsoft so the agency could have a back door if it needs to use the tool. After the leaks occurred, Microsoft immediately patched the vulnerability, although the number of victims of the WannaCry Ransomware Attack indicates many systems are not updated.

RT notes that the hike in the activity of the malware was first noticed on Friday morning by Avast, a software security company. In a few hours, it detected more than 75,000 WannaCry Ransomware Attacks globally. Over the past 24 hours, more than 100,000 infected systems have been detected by the Malware Tech tracker. The number of victims is still growing, according to the Kaspersky Lab, a Russian multinational cyber security and anti-virus provider.

The WannaCry Ransomware Attackers locked up data of the victims and demanded payment in Bitcoins between $300 and $600 for the encryption key. As a result of the malware spread, hospitals rejected patients, factories shuttered, ATMs could not be accessed, and cyber security professionals worked overtime as those working for the U.S. Cyber Response Group huddled with Tom Bossert, adviser of Homeland Security, all weekend.

The Friday WannaCry Ransomware Attack was not the first. In 2016, up to 60 percent of businesses in North America suffered from ransomware attack. Of the victims, 63 percent closed for over one day. The cost of their downtime is estimated at $700 billion, Globe and Mail reports.