Asia Braces For Ransomware Fallout As Workweek Begins: “Hong Kong Will Get Hammered”

Having unleashed hell on over 100 nations and over 225,000 users worldwide on Friday, cybersecurity experts in Asia are bracing for the WannaCrypt ransomware plague to strike as the workweek begins.

As The South China Morning Post reports, thousands of computers across Asia were said to be affected with more reports expected when people return to work after the weekend, security experts said. Attley Ng, senior vice president of NSFOCUS Asia Pacific, a network security solutions company, said:

“China was hit very hard. The attack was very widespread, especially in the higher learning and education sector, resulting in an almost complete paralysis of systems there.”

Bryce Boland, Asia-Pacific chief technology officer at US cybersecurity firm FireEye, said:

“What makes this event so significant is the use of a vulnerability that allows the ransomware to spread rapidly within an [unprotected] organisation.”

The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT), which responds to cybersecurity events, said one home-based user had come forward, becoming the only victim in the city so far.

The Hong Kong police said it had not received any reports.

Michael Gazeley, managing director of local cybersecurity service provider Network Box, said he received calls from major companies throughout Saturday seeking help.

“Hong Kong will get absolutely hammered by this attack. This attack is global and it’s only going to get worse as the virus is evolving,” he warned.

“This is happening just before a weekend in Asia. By Monday, someone will go back to work, click a link on an email, and wipe out the company.”

HKCERT backed up the assertion that the threat could still attack companies as people return to work this week.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer said it had not received any report from government-related security breaches. It added that it has stepped up surveillance on security threats, while reminding all departments to take measures to safeguard against ransomware.

Citing previous hacking attacks on the government, legislator Charles Mok, representing the IT sector, said:

“The authorities say everything is safe and under control. Are we reassured? I don’t know, and the threat is always out there.”

“There is very little information disclosure. From the government’s point of view they might not want to say too much,”

Of course – a massive global cyberattack is just the excuse that elites need to 1) enforce more centralized control over the internet, and 2) explain away any Q2 weakness in global growth as merely ‘transitory’.