Contemporary · Europe · Technology

2017

WannaCry ransomware

May 12, 2017

A worm exploiting a stolen NSA tool spread across 150 countries in a single day, locking up British hospitals, German railways, and Russian ministries. North Korean hackers were eventually blamed. A 22-year-old security researcher accidentally killed it by registering a $10 domain name. The world's digital fragility was no longer theoretical.