Tens of thousands of Chinese firms, institutes affected in WannaCry global cyberattack

Tens of thousands of Chinese companies and institutions – including several major firms in Hong Kong – have been crippled by a global cyberattack as people returned to work on Monday.

On mainland China, almost 30,000 organisations were affected, with universities bearing the brunt of the attack by ransomware WannaCry over the weekend, according to Chinese media reports.

More than 4,300 educational institutions were infected by the malware, the reports said, citing data from cybersecurity giant Qihoo 360’s Threat Intelligence Centre. Government services, hospitals, shopping malls and railway stations were also affected.

Over 20,000 petrol stations across the mainland went offline as energy giant, the China National Petroleum Corporation, cut the network connection to all its refill stations from Friday evening.

CNPC said in a statement on Sunday that the cyberattack had caused severe damage to its network.

The “internet blackout” at the stations meant customers could not pay by credit card or online methods such as AliPay. By mid-day on Sunday, some 20 per cent of the company’s petrol stations remained affected, requiring customers to continue to pay in cash.

In Hong Kong, companies had been attacked 48 times on average from seven countries since Friday, according to Network Box Corp, an internationally managed security services provider that protects 1,700 key Hong Kong organisations from cyberattacks.