South Korean formed a policy consultative body to actively deal with the global WannaCry ransomware attacks that have affected the country along with the rest of the world, the government said Tuesday.
The body is made up of government officials, researchers from state-run tech institutes, including the Korea Internet & Security Agency, and major tech firms such as Microsoft Korea and Samsung Electronics Co., the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said.
(Yonhap)
Members held their first meeting and touched on ways to come up with countermeasures to prevent the further spread of ransomware, although the situation is presumed to have passed its peak. Ransomware refers to malware that locks up files on a computer with encryption until the victims pay a certain amount of money to hackers.
"The body aims to come up with preventative measures by strengthening ties between the public and private sectors to deal with new kinds of virus or ransomware attacks," Song Jeong-soo, an ICT official, was quoted by the ministry as saying.
KISA said that 17 companies have been struck by WannaCry, but the spread of the ransomware has slowed. The latest instance of ransomware first surfaced earlier this month, damaging some 200,000 computers in 150 countries around the globe. (Yonhap)