KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia appears to have escaped the brunt of the massive global ransomware cyberattacks which hit various countries yesterday.
The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said that for now, there have been no reports of such activities occurring in Malaysia.
The commission said it is currently working with other enforcement agencies in monitoring the situation.
It said it is aware of the cyberattacks which hit nearly 100 countries since yesterday.
“Malaysians are therefore urged to immediately update their software to the latest patch and ensure that all hosts have enabled endpoint anti-malware solutions.
“Users are to immediately backup vital data to an external hard drive or cloud storage service, if they have not done so,” it said.
MCMC also warned the public not to click on any suspicious links and should report any incidents to the authorities quickly.
According to the reports, the attacks apparently exploited a defect exposed in documents leaked from the United State National Security Agency.
The technique, known as ransomware, locks users’ files unless they pay the attackers the ransom they demanded.
Affected by the onslaught were computer networks at hospitals in Britain, Russia’s interior ministry, the Spanish telecom giant Telefonica and the US delivery firm FedEx and many other organisations.