Beware, WannaCry cyber attack may just be the beginning

The recent cyber attacks had hit more than 150 countries and threatened businesses and individuals to pay a ransom to get back the access to their owns files.

With the world still getting to grips with the unprecedented global cyber attacks through the WannaCry ransomware, the group that made such an attack possible has promised that it would soon be making tools available, which could lead to similar attacks in the future.

The cyber ransomware attack infected at least two lakh computers in various countries according to European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol. The malware locked down computers and threatened businesses and individuals of wiping out files from systems in a week's time if the victim did not pay a ransom between 300 to 600 dollars.

And now, the group named Shadow Brokers, that had leaked the tools from the US national security agency's stockpile of cyber weapons, which were used by hackers for the recent attacks has said in a blog that it would be releasing hacking tools every month.

WannaCry ransomware had spread using a loophole in Microsoft windows operating systems that were initially found by the US national security agency (NSA), which according to reports was using it in order to find a way to hack networks of terrorist groups, and was leaked by Shadow Brokers, which said that it had found the tools in agency's servers which the group had breached earlier.

According to a leading news agency, the group promised in a blog published on Tuesday to release similar tools every month from June to anyone willing to pay for them for access to the tech world's biggest secrets.

It has reportedly also threatened to release data from banks which use SWIFT, an international money transfer network, and also information from nuclear and missile programs of countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. "More details in June," it added.

Microsoft, the company who's network were the prime focus of the attacks, said on Tuesday that it was aware of the group's most recent claim and that the companies security team was monitoring threats to "help us prioritise and take appropriate action."

While earlier this week the company's president and chief legal officer Brad Smith had reportedly confirmed that the attack had used elements stolen from the NSA, the US government has not given any direct comments in the matter till date.

Though the group behind the WannaCry malware are yet be identified, experts have pointed at clues that point to a possible involvement of North Korea.

OneIndia News