WannaCry Ransomware Attack

Date: May 12, 2017 • Location: Washington, United States

The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack in May 2017 by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments in the form of bitcoin cryptocurrency. It was propagated using EternalBlue, an exploit developed by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for Microsoft Windows systems. EternalBlue was stolen and leaked by a group called The Shadow Brokers (TSB) a month prior to the attack. While Microsoft had released patches previously to close the exploit, much of WannaCry's spread was from organizations that had not applied these patches, or were using older Windows systems that were past their end of life. These patches were critical to organizations' cyber security but many were not implemented due to general ignorance of their importance.