Asian countries suffering from WannaCry ransomware cyberattacks

HANOI – Asian governments and businesses continued Monday to be disrupted by the WannaCry ransomware cyber attack that erupted Friday, according to media reports from China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India.

Chinese government sectors, including traffic, police, immigration, social security, and industry, were also hit by the virus. Some 29,372 institutions have been affected by the virus so far.

The virus is still spreading, affecting industry and government computer systems, but now more slowly, Cyber Security Administration China (CAC) was quoted as saying by the Chinese media.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has issued warnings as well as offered protection measures to all users to guard against the ransomware and its variations, which target Microsoft Windows – an operating system that is widely used in this Indo-Chinese country, especially the outdated Windows XP.

Hong-Kong has been no exception – it was also hit by the WannaCry virus, which has spread mostly via e-mail. According to Michael Gazeley, managing director and co-founder of Network Box Corporation, there are still ‘many ‘landmines’ waiting in people’s in-boxes’ in the region.