National Crime Agency
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Investigators "identifying patterns" in global cyber-attack
National Crime Agency Director General Lynne Owens has issued an update on the scale of the UK law enforcement response to the global cyber-attack from the ‘WCry’ or ‘WannaDecrypt0r’ ransomware.
She said: “As things stand, there is no indication of a second surge of cases here in the UK.
“But that doesn’t mean there won’t be one.
“We’re trawling through huge amounts of data associated with the attack and identifying patterns.
“The NCA is leading the criminal investigation into the attack, but for operational reasons we cannot give a running commentary.
“Because of the quantity of data involved and the complexity of these kinds of enquiries we need to be clear that this is an investigation which will take time.
“But I want to reassure the public that investigators are working round the clock to secure evidence and have begun to forensically analyse a number of infected computers.
“Specialist cyber-crime officers from the NCA and our partner regional organised crime units are speaking directly with victims.
“That includes visiting NHS sites to help protect victims and secure and preserve evidence. Those visits are continuing.
“More than 150 countries have been affected, and we’re in constant communication with international partners, including Europol, Interpol and the FBI and the collaboration has been strong and effective.”
Our advice remains the same.
- Make sure your security software patches are up-to-date.
- Make sure that you are running anti-virus software.
- Back-up your data in multiple locations, including offline.
- Avoid opening unknown email attachments or clicking on links in spam emails.
- Victims of fraud should report it to Action Fraud. We encourage the public not to pay any ransom demand.
