The latest cyberattack, even more sophisticated

Europol Director Rob Wainwright called the attack another “serious kidnapping”. He said it had similarities to previous hackers “WannaCry”, but with the most sophisticated shock “aimed at exploiting a string of weaknesses”.

The “WannaCry” virus caused a wave of hostage attacks at British hospitals in May, causing hospitals to divert ambulances and cancel operations. Experts eventually found a way to unblock the hostage, while about 300 people paid the required sum for releasing their computer systems.

The cyberattack Tuesday caused problems in 64 countries, including American pharmaceutical company Merck, Russian oil giant Rosneft, the British advertising company WPP and French industrial grouping Saint-Gobai.

India's largest container port also stopped working, causing problems for governments and affected businesses. The hostage virus blocks computer systems until the victims pay a lot of money.

The problem at the port of Jawaharlal Nehru in Mumbai included a terminal controlled by the Danish navigation company A.P. Moller-Maersk. The company said yesterday that the virus was also expanding into terminals of several other ports.

Minister for Cyber Security in Australia Dan Tehan told reporters Wednesday that officials have not yet confirmed whether it was the same virus that hit two Australian companies by kidnapping, but that all signs so far show it was the same.

Banks, government offices and airports in Ukraine were among the first to announce cyberattacks.

A US spokesman said the National Security Department, the FBI and other agencies are working with public, private and foreign partners to react to the attack and provide technical information on prevention and normalisation of the situation. ”