Massive Cyberattack Halted, Experts Worry About Copycats
WHITFIELD: All right, right now, we're getting new information on a massive cyber-attack that has hit users in nearly 100 countries across the globe. A cyber expert tells CNN the malware called "Wannacry" has been halted at least for now, but not before it infected hundreds of thousands of computers, locking them down and telling users to pay up or risk losing all of their data. Let me bring in CNN Money tech correspondent, Samuel Burke, and CNN Money Europe editor, Nina dos Santos. Good to see both of you. So Samuel, you first. So how was this malware stopped for now?</s>SAMUEL BURKE, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: A cyber-security researcher accidentally stopped the spread of this ransomware but we're not out of woods yet. This already be in your computer at work and then you show up on Monday and you're still in this situation deciding if you want to pay $300 in Bitcoin in order to get your files back. I think what's interesting here is this all has to do with a flaw in Windows that Microsoft actually started patching back in March. But if you have not updated your computer, Fredricka, and you're like so many people you see that pop up in the lower right-hand corner, you see that pop up in the lower right-hand corner, you don't want to restart your computer and you say I'll do it tomorrow. But if you delay that, you could be one of the few people who is vulnerable to this. If you've updated your computer already or do it very soon you're safe. That's all that has to be done here.</s>WHITFIELD: So, Samuel, you were saying it's folks at home not just businesses and institutions that are being most affected here.</s>BURKE: Absolutely. People at home, but also big businesses and of course, hospitals over in the U.K. where Nina is as well. Amazing to see how technology actually is affecting people's lives. You know, hospitals had to cancel outpatient appointments. So this is an interesting case where it's not hacked passwords or credit card numbers. These are actual lives that are being affected here.</s>WHITFIELD: So Nina, on those 16 National Health Service organizations in the U.K. in particular that have been hit, what are officials there doing to try to fix this, save their information, how is it impacting them overall?</s>NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN MONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Well, they are taking it very seriously indeed, Fredricka. Just among all of the countries around the world that have been affected, it probably is the U.K. where we've seen a critical national infrastructure affected so badly that Samuel was pointing out, it is people missing appointments, doctor's appointments, and in some cases even surgeries. Imagine if you're prepped for surgery and then the surgeon tells you that they can't operate because he can't access what blood group you are because all of that is now stored online and computers are being completely shut down by this. So the government is taking it very seriously. In fact, we saw the home secretary, Amber Rudd, chaired an emergency meeting of what's called "The Cobra" cabinet office, special briefing, which is a bit of like a situation room that you have in the United States dealing with emergencies like this. And she went into that meeting which just finished in the last 20 minutes or so. She had this to say about the fact that this is a very serious event but not just confined to National Health Service here in the U.K.</s>AMBER RUDD, BRITISH HOME SECRETARY: There will be lessons to be learned from this example, but I think it's normal to focus entirely the different types of software being used. This is a major cyberattack, an international attack. In fact, the response has been good in the U.K., and I hope we'll be able to continue to disrupt it.</s>DOS SANTOS: Now remember that the U.K. is in the midst of an election year. People are going to the polls in just few weeks from now, Fredricka. Of course, the National Health Service and how it's responded to this and being vulnerable to this attack will be high up on the political agenda. But just going back to the international nature of this, we've also had Euro Pole, which is the E.U.'s law enforcement agency coming out saying that this is unprecedented, just like many E.U. countries, the U.K. and other places around the world have been beating up their cyber defense. We had the G7 biggest economies in the world their finance ministers met earlier today in Italy and yet again stressed the need have a stronger commitment to shore up cyber defenses around the planet.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Nina Dos Santos and Samuel Burke, thank you so much to both of you. Appreciate it. All right, fresh off the firing of FBI Director James Comey, 20 states attorneys general are joining forces calling for an independent counsel to look into Russia's role in the election. We'll speak with one of them right after this.