Hanoi (VNA) - The spread of WannaCry ransomware has been wreaking havoc acrossthe world since May 12, and several Vietnamese businesses and agencies areadvised to take cautions.

TheVietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), under the Ministry ofInformation and Communications, has issued warnings as well as offeredprotection measures to all users to guard against the ransomware and itsvariations, which target Microsoft Windows - an operating system that is widelyused in Vietnam, especially the outdated Windows XP.

Kasperskyhas listed Vietnam among the top 20 countries most affected by this ransomware;the other countries and territories include Russia, Ukraine, India, Taiwan, andmainland China.

TheVNCERT said the ransomware is extremely dangerous as it is capable of stealinginformation and decrypting the entire system that has been infected.

Oncethe computer’s data has been encrypted, or locked down, a message would appearsaying that the users’ files are no longer accessible. Should they want to gettheir data back, users are asked to pay up large sums of money to get adecryption key. The longer the users wait, the higher the ransom money. Thehackers behind WannaCry only accept ransom paid via BitCoin, a digital currencythat ensures that the transaction cannot be traced.

The State Bank of Vietnam on May 15 confirmed that no Vietnamese credit institutionswere affected by the WannaCry ransomware. It urged all banks in the country totake precautions against the ransomware.

VuNgoc Son, deputy head of the anti-malware department of Bkav Corporation, thelargest internet security firm in Vietnam, said that the WannaCry ransomware’sbehaviour is “not new”, but he believes that the use of this ransomware willnot really ease up as “it can directly earn large profits for hackers”.

Bkavrecommends that all computer users immediately install updates and securitypatches and hotfixes via Windows Update. Users are also advised to back upvaluable data regularly, either to cloud services or to another disk drives, annot click on suspicious links or attached files.

Mac or Linux users are at the moment safe from harm, but there remains a riskthey could be infected via the intranet once a member computer is infected.

Currently,an estimated 200,000 victims in 150 different countries are reported to havebeen hit by the cyberattack.

WannaCry exploits a Windows vulnerability codenamed EternalBlue, which has beenpatched by Microsoft in an update deployed on March 14. However, not everyonehas installed the patch yet, and those who have not are vulnerable to WannaCry.

Theexploitation of EternalBlue, suspected to have been developed using a hackingmethod leaked from US National Security Agency, allows the malware to spreadthrough file-sharing protocols set up across the internal networks oforganisations, many of which criss-cross the globe, according to FinancialTimes.

WannaCry developers have prepared a Q&Asection in various languages, offering infected users localised instructions onhow to recover data and how to pay the ransom.-VNA