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Telefonica hit by cyber attack

Manny Pham
May 12, 2017

Attacks were also reported in the USA, China, Russia, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Taiwan and others

O2 parent Telefonica has been hit by a cyber attack from hackers today (May 12) in an attempt to infect computers with ransomware.

Multiple firms worldwide have also suffered including the National Health Service. Attacks were also reported in the USA, China, Russia, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Taiwan and others.

Ransomware is computer malware that installs covertly on a device, giving hackers opportunity to extort victims.

Spain’s National Cryptology Centre said in a statement: “an alert relating to a massive ransomware attack on various organisations, which is affecting their Windows systems”.

Telefonica said in a statement it was aware of a “cybersecurity incident” but clients and services had not been affected.

“News (of the attack) has been exaggerated and our colleagues are working on it right now,” said Telefonica Chief Data Officer Chema Alonso on Twitter.

UK services

An O2 spokesman confirmed to Mobile News internal email services have been closed as a precaution.

The spokesman issued the following statement: “This morning a malware incident has affected Telefónica Spain’s internal corporate network.  They have applied the necessary action required for an incident like this and put preventative measures in place to help protect the organisation.

“Other services for O2 UK including customer data are not impacted.  As a precaution, O2 UK are deploying additional safeguards and heightened monitoring to help protect its systems.”

 

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