A huge range of organisations around the world have been affected by the WannaCry ransomware cyberattack, described by the EU’s law enforcement agency as “unprecedented”. Here are some of the most prominent victims:
UK National Health Service
The British public health service — the world’s fifth-largest employer, with 1.7 million staff — was badly hit, with interior minister Amber Rudd saying around 45 facilities were affected. Several were forced to cancel or delay treatment for patients. Pictures on social media showed screens of NHS computers with images demanding payment of $300 (Dh1,101) in the virtual currency Bitcoin, saying: “Ooops, your files have been encrypted!”
Renault
The French automobile giant was hit, forcing it to halt production at sites in France and its factory in Slovenia as part of measures to stop the spread of the virus. Nissan UK’s unit in Sunderland was also hit by the attack, a spokeswoman said. The manufacturer is the first major French company to report being affected by the ransomware attack.
Russian banks and ministries
Russia’s central bank was targeted, along with several government ministries and the railway system. The central bank said it had detected “massive” cyberattacks on domestic banks, which successfully thwarted them. The interior ministry said 1,000 of its computers were hit by a virus. But officials played down the incident, saying the attacks had been contained.
German railways
Germany’s Deutsche Bahn national railway operator was affected, with information screens and ticket machines hit. Travellers tweeted pictures of hijacked departure boards showing the ransom demand instead of train times. But the company insisted that trains were running as normal. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said government computer systems were not affected.
FedEx
The US package delivery group acknowledged it had been hit by malware and said it was “implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible”.
Telefonica and other Spanish firms
The Spanish telephone giant said it was attacked but “the infected equipment is under control and being reinstalled,” said Chema Alonso, the head of the company’s cyber security unit and a former hacker. “There has been an alert relating to a massive ransomware attack on various organisations, which is affecting their Windows systems,” Spain’s National Cryptology Centre said. Vodafone’s unit in Spain, power company Iberdrola and utility Gas Natural have asked staff to turn off computers as a preventive measure, spokespeople at the firms said.
Sandvik
Swedish engineering firm Sandvik said on Saturday it had been hit in the cyberattack. Sandvik said computers handling both administration and production were hit in a number of countries where the company operates, with some production forced to stop. “In some cases the effects were small, in others they were a little larger,” it said, without saying which countries had been affected or give further details on the impact on production.
