A ransomware attack has crippled the US city of Baltimore that has brought all of its email and online payment gateways to a standstill. The hackers are demanding $76,280 in exchange for freeing all the city’s systems.
The tool that has paralysed the city is a National Security Agency creation called “EternalBlue”, which has been used in other high-profile cyber attacks including “Wannacry” in May 2017, The Verge reported on Saturday.
Security experts suggest that hackers used “EternalBlue” to exploit a vulnerability in some versions of Windows XP and Vista systems, allowing an external party to execute remote commands on their target.