It affected a lot of people over the weekend.
State agencies and businesses in Ireland are on high alert today following fears that a massive computer virus, which affected a lot of the world over the weekend, could end up spreading to Ireland as people return to work.
The HSE have warned staff about using their computers on Monday morning. Staff have been told to turn on their computers when they go to work, but not to attempt to log in so that added security features can be added to their system.
About 200,000 victims in 150 countries or more have so far been affected by the cyberattack which occurred over the weekend.
The NHS in the UK was affected by the hack with 48 out of 248 NHS trusts affected by the hack, although this number has been reduced since the start of the attack.
Cyber security experts said the spread of the worm dubbed WannaCry – “ransomware” that affected people over the weekend had been slowed, but there are fresh fears that a reworked version could cause further problems, while experts are still unclear about the extent of the damage caused in Friday’s initial attack.
Head of Europol Rob Wainwright said: “At the moment, we are in the face of an escalating threat. The numbers are going up, I am worried about how the numbers will continue to grow when people go to work and turn (on) their machines on Monday morning,” he said.
Users are being warned not to open any suspicious emails and the message being spread by government departments is to think before you click.
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