200 Thai computers hit by WannaCry fixed
Two hundred computers in Thailand were hit by the global ransomware attack but all had been fixed and could be used normally again, an official from a computer emergency response team said Monday.
Surangkana Wayuparb, chief executive officer of the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) and head of the Thailand Computer Emergency Response Team (ThaiCERT), said owners of the 200 computers infected by the WannaCry bug had not paid ransoms demanded to decode data encrypted by the hackers.
The basic problem on all the infected computers had been fixed and all were functioning normally after technicians followed the advice provided by ThaiCERT, she said, without elaborating on details.
On Sunday, Europol revealed that the WannaCry ransomware had affected 200,000 victims in 150 countries and described the cyberattack as “unprecedented”.
Surangkana said as a long-term strategy, the ETDA would prepare computer users to deal with cyber threats. This year, the agency will spend Bt400 million to help ThaiCERT develop skills and technology to deal with cybersecurity issues.
She said a cybersecurity bill was being debated by the National Reform Steering Assembly, but in her view the bill was not as important as training skilled IT workers who could deal with cyber threats.