A few days ago, the WannaCry malware put global cybersecurity in jeopardy by affecting large companies around the world. Although the news broke in our country after Telefónica announced that its systems had been affected and its activity had been paralyzed, the truth is that its reach was much greater.
China, Russia and the United States were the territories most affected by this ransomware, but the British public health system and companies such as FedEx, Nissan and Renault were also affected.
Although it seems that the virus is currently under control, thanks in part to the rapid reporting and action of companies and IT professionals, nothing is certain in the digital world and there is already talk of the possibility of new attacks appearing in the future.
But until that happens, cybersecurity teams are already working to resolve questions such as who was behind this attack, how it happened and why.
Initial investigations point to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group , which has a long history of cyberattacks behind it. But what is even more confusing is the true scope of this incident and the characteristics of its dissemination.
(Incibe) estimates that 1,200 computers have been affected, experts say that this number is too low when talking about a global attack.
"I understand that Incibe does not provide data based on estimates, but it makes no sense to talk about such a low number of infections when companies as large as Telefónica are affected," says Vicente Díaz, an analyst and security researcher at Kaspersky, in statements to the newspaper El País.
He also points out that the silence of other companies that have also been affected by the ransomware does not help to investigate the causes of what happened and to contain possible new attacks.
Sergio de los Santos, director of innovation and laboratory at Eleven Paths, a cybersecurity brazil phone number unit at Telefónica, told the newspaper that the challenge now is to find out how the first infections occurred and why they all began on the same day in different parts of the world when their spread is through the local network.
It will be a long road to regaining relative calm in the world of telecommunications, as the dangers in the online environment are constant and obvious.
Malware appears and disappears every day, although always on a smaller scale. However, the difficulty and slowness of large companies when it comes to updating their security systems puts them in a vulnerable position in the face of increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals who have sent out a very clear message: not even the "armored" computer giants are safe from the clutches of hackers.