Just one more reason for China to develop its own mousetrap. According to China’s official state TV broadcaster, cited by the New York Times, about 40,000 institutions were hit by the WannaCry ransomware attack on Windows-based computers since Friday – more institutions than in any other country.
This included research universities like Tsinghua University. Students around the country complained about being locked out of final thesis papers. Hainan Airlines and other major companies were infected. The electronic payment systems at PetroChina’s gas stations around the country went down for much of the weekend. Bank of China ATMs went down too.
China Telecom was among the companies that instructed employees over the weekend to patch the vulnerability of their computers, first using a patch it provided, and when that failed, a patch provided by Chinese security company Qihoo 360, which, as the Times put it, citing an employee of China Telecom, ‘supports pirated and out-of-date versions of Windows.’
So why did China’s companies and institutions get infected with this ransomware in such large numbers? One reason is the sheer size and complexity of the Chinese economy and the large numbers of computers. The other reason: Pirated versions of Microsoft Windows running on those computers.
This post was published at Wolf Street on May 15, 2017.
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