The cyber-extortion attack hitting dozens of countries (200,000 computers were affected) spread quickly and widely thanks to an unusual confluence of factors:
- a known and highly dangerous security hole in Microsoft Windows,
- tardy users who didn’t apply Microsoft’s March software fix,
- a software design that allowed the malware to spread quickly once inside university, business and government networks.
Not to mention the fact that those responsible were able to borrow weaponized software code apparently created by the U.S. National Security Agency to launch the attack in the first place.