Security scramble as ransomware spreads

Russia worst hit, followed by Ukraine, India and Taiwan, say experts

Governments, companies and security experts from China to the United Kingdom on Saturday raced to contain the fallout from an audacious cyberattack that spread quickly across the globe, raising fears that people would not be able to meet ransom demands before their data are destroyed.
 
The global efforts come less than a day after malicious software, transmitted via email and stolen from the National Security Agency, exposed vulnerabilities in computer systems in almost 100 countries in one of the largest “ransomware” attacks on record.
 
The cyberattack, in which harmful software took over computers, encrypted the information and then