On 12 May, more than 150 countries were attacked by ransomware with over 200 000 computers infected. Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that encrypts a computer's data until a ransom is paid. In this case, $300 worth of the cryptocurrency bitcoin was demanded for infected computers.
While the scale of the attack makes it seem spectacular, flaws found in the ransomware showed that the attacker was relatively amateur - cybersecurity specialists temporarily stopped the spread of the ransomware using a 'kill-switch' that stops the software from running.
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