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These factors correlate with many of the emotional reactions to cybercrime discussed before ( Symantec, 2010). Psychologically he was also impacted given that he had mentally prepared himself for the heart surgery being conducted on that date, and because it would now need to be rescheduled to some point in the future. This led to his frustration, inconvenience to family members who travelled to stay close by and bewilderment as to why anyone would wish to attack a hospital. Possibly one of the most well-reported in the set is that of a man who was preparing for a heart surgery and had it cancelled hours before it was due to take place ( Fisher, Therrien, Hand, & McCague, 2017). If we use the infection of NHS locations as an example, there are numerous cases to examine. For many it resulted in worry, anguish, disbelief and a sense of helplessness-these are many of the issues discussed earlier in this chapter ( Böhme & Moore, 2012 Nurse, 2018 Symantec, 2010).
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The psychological impact of WannaCry was also significant. This aims to support people's trust in the government and in technological systems. This message was likely meant to remove the gloom and potential public despair associated with a targeted NHS attack, as well as to reassure people that the country is prepared for such events. … I don't think it's to do with that preparedness” ( The Independent, 2017). … The fact is the NHS has fallen victim to this.
Current worm virus windows#
… This is a virus that attacked Windows platforms. According to The Independent, the UK's Home Secretary stated: “ If you look at who's been impacted by this virus, it's a huge variety across different industries and across international governments. In particular, there was an emphasis on the fact that the attack had not targeted the NHS and that it was international. This level of response from governments further emphasized the impact of the threat in the eyes of the public.Īn interesting point to note here is the government's comments on the attack. WannaCry also prompted government responses-in the United Kingdom a Cobra meeting (i.e., an emergency response government committee meeting) was called, and in the United States, the homeland security adviser was ordered to coordinate the government's response and help to organize the search for the responsible parties ( Sanger, Chan, & Scott, 2017). This is a particularly worry situation given how long patients often have to wait for some treatments. Specifically, there were cancelled operations, certain scans and treatments were postponed and ambulances were diverted. This resulted in direct disruption to people's lives in the context of their health. A total of 48 NHS trusts were infected in England and 13 in Scotland ( BBC, 2017). In the United Kingdom, critical infrastructure such as the National Health Service (NHS) was also impacted. In total, these disruptions led to an estimated $8 billion in economic costs globally ( Barlyn, 2017). Overall, people felt a loss of control ( Ajzen, 2002) as the threat was so pervasive and the only option for recovery-assuming no recent backups were made-was to pay the ransom. Organizations closed (causing people to be sent home), production stopped (resulting in product backlogs), and many businesses were unaware of how best to restore services. Due to the nature of the attack, the disruption it caused at the social level was quite significant. These included members of the public, but also healthcare organizations, car manufacturers, telecoms companies, delivery services and the education sector. Reflecting on the social impact of the attack, WannaCry infected over 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries ( Reuters, 2017).
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Current worm virus install#
While ransomware itself was not new, WannaCry was particularly successful because it targeted a computer vulnerability that many organizations and individuals did not yet install security patches (i.e., software updates) to address. In addition to spreading across computer networks using the Windows operating system, WannaCry (also known as WannaCrypt and WanaCrypt0r) encrypted files of the host computer and only allowed access to those files after a bitcoin ransom payment was made. WannaCry was a computer worm responsible for one of the most devastating cyberattacks in recent history. Nurse, in Emerging Cyber Threats and Cognitive Vulnerabilities, 2020 WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017