A global cyberattack using ransomware targeted tens of thousands of victims in China discovered by employees across the country as they returned to work on Monday. It comes after the first wave of attacks crippled computers on college campuses over the weekend.
So far, nearly 30,000 institutions were infected, amounting to hundreds of thousands of computers. Railway stations, shopping malls and government departments were among the affected.
Internet access was frozen at around 20,000 PetroChina gas stations, customers couldn't use their bank card or cellphone to make payments. It took a day and half for things to get back to normal, over 80 percent of the affected gas stations have resumed service.
In response to the attacks, China's computer emergency response office urged Windows users to install a security patch to prevent further incidents. Public security departments and universities around the country issued similar alerts on social media.
Microsoft issued a rare fix to protect out-of-support products such as Windows XP, which means Windows users are protected as long as they update their systems.
