International manhunt for hackers behind Wannacry cyber attack

Thousands of computer systems could be at risk from Friday's global cyber attack as workers return to work after the weekend, the head of Europol warned, announcing an international manhunt is underway to track down the people responsible.

Rob Wainright told ITV: "At the moment, we are in the face of an escalating threat. The numbers are going up. I am worried about how the numbers will continue to grow."

Friday's attack, which affected more than 200,000 people in 150 countries, including business and large corporations, was "unprecedented in its scale", he added.

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The "Wannacry" malware virus exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows software, taking over computers and demanding a payment of $300 (£232) in the virtual currency Bitcoin to unlock files and return them to the user. BBC analysis of three Bitcoin accounts linked with the attack suggests the hackers have been paid the equivalent of £22,080 so far.

A manhunt has been launched by both Europol and the FBI.

The UK is one of the worst-affected countries to be hit by Wannacry, which also attacked Germany's rail network Deutsche Bahn, Spanish telecommunications operator Telefonica, US logistics giant FedEx and Russia's interior ministry.

Forty-eight NHS trusts, a fifth of the total in England and Wales, have been affected, causing disruption to routine procedures and emergency services, including the cancelling of operations and postponement of cancer treatments.

A spokeswoman for NHS Digital told The Guardian that "given the timing of the attack, some parts of the NHS will not have clocked there is an issue", raising fears more systems could be affected for the first time today.

Officials at the Ministry of Defence played down fears that its four Trident-missile carrying submarines, which use the same software which left the NHS exposed, were vulnerable to attack.

The Windows software was installed on the submarines "to save money rather than meet the cost of a tailored system", says The Guardian, but nuclear subs "have been designed for almost complete isolation when at sea", making them almost impossible to hack.

The political fallout from the attack escalated over the weekend as both Labour and the Lib Dems blamed the crisis in the health service on the government's failure to upgrade hospital computers.

According to The Sunday Times, a security update released by Microsoft in March to protect against the virus "was not applied in many NHS organisations that had been using Windows XP, an older operating system".

Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon defended the government's decision not to fund updates for NHS computers, "appearing to deflect criticism on the health trusts themselves for the fact crucial files were left open for hackers to exploit", says The Independent.