As deadline begins to pass, WannaCry falls short of six figures

LONDON (May 19): One week ago a global cyberattack dubbed “unprecedented” by Europol began infecting an estimated 200,000 of the world’s computers, starting a seven-day countdown to the destruction of data if victims didn’t pay a ransom.

On Friday, those countdowns begin reaching zero. But so far, as of 13:00 in London, the attackers have claimed only about US$92,000 ($128,000) in payments from their widespread ransom demands, according to Elliptic Enterprises Ltd., a UK-based company that tracks illicit use of bitcoin. The company calculates the total based on payments tracked to bitcoin addresses specified in the ransom demands.

The ransomware, called WannaCry, began infecting users on May 12 and gave them 72 hours to pay US$300 in bitcoin or pay twice as much. Refusal to pay after seven days was promised to result in the permanent loss of data via irrevocable encryption.

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