Britain worked through night to counter cyberattack on health service: minister

This photograph, posed as an illustration on May 12, 2017, shows the website of the NHS: East and North Hertfordshire notifying users of a problem in its network taken outside the Department of Health in London. The unprecedented global ransomware cyberattack has hit more than 200,000 victims in more than 150 countries, Europol executive director Rob Wainwright said May 14, 2017. Britain's state-run National Health Service was affected by the attack. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS

LONDON: British technology experts worked through the night to patch the computer systems of the health service after the ransomware worm forced dozens of hospitals to cancel some operations and appointments, Security Minister Ben Wallace said on May 15. 

Capitalising on spying tools believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency, the virus dubbed WannaCry has blocked more than 200,000 computers across the globe, demanding a ransom to unlock them.