Nation state cyberattacks on rise, says Europol

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)

THE HAGUE: Global ransomware attacks are increasingly linked to nation states, with the lines between politics and crime often blurring, Europe’s police agency said on Sept 18. 

Key ransomware attacks include the so-called WannaCry and NotPetya malware, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world in 2017, demanding that users pay ransoms to regain access.