WannaCry

In May 2017, the virus aptly called WannaCry affected over 230,000 Microsoft machines globally. It was ransomware, a form of malicious software that locks up your computer and demands payment in cryptocurrencies. In this instance, the virus was able to prevent thousands of people from accessing their personal files and other data while demanding a significant amount of bitcoin. The hackers would then deliver decryption keys to open the files after the transaction was complete.

Although no one hacking organization has claimed responsibility for it to date, it spread to hundreds of thousands of systems before it was even identified as a virus. It was similar to a digital pandemic. Marcus Hutchins, a security researcher, eventually found a killswitch that prevented it from spreading, but many victims who declined to pay the ransom were never able to recover their files. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd. allegedly came under the same attack in August 2018.

• Year: 2017
  
• Damage: virus over 230,000 Microsoft machines globally