They predicted the ‘WannaCry’ ransomware cyberattack, so how come few listened?

A map compiled by British company Malware Tech displays the geographical distribution of the WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack over the past 24 hours on May 12, 2017, as seen on a computer screen in Portland Ore. (Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/TNS)

Misha Govshteyn and his colleagues at the cybersecurity startup Alert Logic dropped all their projects about a month ago, except for one they deemed a graver threat than the rest. 

Someone had stolen never-before-seen hacking tactics from the National Security Agency and posted them online. Working in shifts for 36 hours straight, dozens of Alert Logic engineers in Belfast in Northern Ireland, Cardiff in Britain, and Houston devoted their attention to analysing the leaked computer code.