Europe braces for more cyber-attacks as people go back to work

THE number of computers affected by Friday’s global cyber-attack is set to increase as people return to work according to Europol.

In just three days, the computer virus known as WannaCry has affected more than 200,000 people across the globe hitting at least 150 countries.

Europol’s director Rob Wainwright said numbers would go up even further starting Monday “when people turn on their computers at work.”

Spain’s National Cryptological Centre released software that protects uninfected systems from the virus called NoMoreCry to help protect businesses not yet hit by the program.

Although it is difficult to fully monitor, Elliptic – a firm which tracks the illegal use of the online Bitcoin currency – estimated that hackers have so far extracted around €37,000.

Police have advised people not to pay the ransom and instead report it to authorities via this website, who will then try to fix the infected system.

Spain’s National Institution for Cybersecurity said “the situation is completely under control” and that “all companies affected have begun recovering their files.”