Tehran, Iran, May 14
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
A new malware that has hit computers worldwide asking them for ransome since May 12 has hit Iranian centers as well, Iran Cyber Police has announced, IRIB news agency reported May 14.
The attack, which started on Friday, has been holding hospitals and other entities hostage by freezing computers, encrypting their data and demanding money through online bitcoin payment -- $300 at first.
It threatens the victims with destroying the data if they fail to pay up, and raises the ransom to $600, the longer they delay to do so. It has caused Microsoft to put up some of its security fixes for free.
On Saturday, the attack crippled Britain's hospital network. A researcher has, meanwhile, reportedly found a "kill switch" in the software's code.