Attack underlines need for global collaboration on cyber security: expert
The ransomeware virus WannaCry is still spreading but the attacks have apparently slowed, said China's top Internet regulator on Monday.
Starting Friday, WannaCry has rapidly spread across the globe, affecting many agencies including hospitals, universities and government departments.
In China, some industries and government computers were impacted by the virus with education research agencies being the worst hit.
Government departments including public security, education and banks immediately responded to the attack and circulated detailed guidelines to prevent the damage. Together with anti-virus firms, they have already contained further spread of the virus on Monday, said an official with China's Cyberspace Administration.
Only very few agencies and enterprises were impacted by the virus on Monday, Qihoo 360 Enterprise Security Group President Wu Yunkun, told the Global Times on Monday.
Wu added that "previously many had feared that as companies and government agencies would start their computers on Monday, they would be hit by a new wave of ransomware attacks. However, a survey shows that the 'Black Monday' did not take place, and the virus spread much more slowly than the previous two days."
The spread of this ransomware virus is a test for China's cyber security system, and also a reminder that many domestic agencies and enterprises lack strong cyber security awareness, said Wu.
Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, said on the company's website on Sunday that this attack represents a completely unintended but disconcerting link between the two most serious forms of cyber security threats in the world today - state action and organized criminal action.
"We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits while suggesting that a new 'Digital Geneva Convention' should be in place to govern these issues, including a new requirement for governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors, rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them', said Smith.
Fang Xingdong, founder of blogchina.com and dean of the International Institute for Internet at Guangdong-based Shantou University, told the Global Times on Monday that this round of global cyber attack fully exposes a new ecosystem of cyber crimes.
Facing such criminal actions in cyberspace, any single nation would appear to be too weak to defend itself, so it demands world governments to collaborate on an unprecedented level, which is in line with the concept of a cyberspace community of common destiny proposed by China, he noted.
Safeguarding cyber security will enter a new phase if U.S. President Donald Trump could learn a lesson from this ransomware attack and alter the country's cyber security strategy by getting rid of their "Cold War" mentality and actively promoting collaborations with other governments.
