Cyber Security "wake-up call"

A cyber-attack that has hit 150 countries since Friday should be treated by governments around the world as a "wake-up call".More than 200,000 computers have been affected so far in this attack.

Authorities had warned of a day of chaos ahead of Monday, with the National Cyber Security Centre saying that existing infections could spread through computer systems.
More than 4,000 educational organisations were among the 30,000 ‘institutions' to have been paralysed by the global cyberattack, which is known as Wanna Decryptor ransomware, or WannaCry, Qihu 360, an anti-virus software firm said. 

What is ransomware ? 

The WannaCry ransomware, which locks computer systems and demands $300 (£230) in Bitcoin, hit over 200,000 computers on Friday and the impact continued to be felt across the weekend. Around £33,000 in ransoms have been paid to date, according to analysis of Bitcoin wallets.

Australian officials said so far only three small-to-medium sized businesses had reported being locked out of their systems while New Zealand's ministry of business said a small number of unconfirmed incidents were being investigated.

In Japan, both Nissan and Hitachi reported some units had been affected, while in China energy giant PetroChina said that at some petrol stations customers had been unable to use its payment system.
Authorities fear a second wave of the "WannaCry" ransomware could hit systems as people return to work and switch on their computers on Monday .