More than a dozen hospitals in England and major companies, including FedEx and Spain's largest telecom, were targets Friday of crippling malware that appeared to be part of a large-scale cyberattack across the world.U.S. companies were being warned to gird against the threat, which reportedly blocked access to computers in exchange for a ransom.At least 16 National Health Service hospitals and related organizations were affected in England and another five in Scotland, officials said in a statement.British Prime Minister Theresa May said the government's cyber security arm was working with the NHS, and confirmed that "no patient data has been compromised."
The extent of the attack globally and the author of the malicious software — known as the Wanna Decryptor, or WannaCry — were unclear, but cyber security experts said they were surprised at its apparent reach."The scale of it — that's pretty unprecedented," Ben Rapp, the CEO of IT support company Managed Networks, told NBC News' British partner ITV News. "There's been a lot of ransomware in hospitals, but to see 16 hospitals, last time I looked, and reports of other people — this is probably the biggest ransomware attack we've seen."In a statement to NBC News, FedEx said that "like many other companies, FedEx is experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware. We are implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible."The Memphis, Tennessee-based global delivery company did not immediately say whether a ransom was demanded for return of their computers' functions.Some English hospitals tweeted that they were taking precautionary measures to protect patients, while doctors' offices tweeted problems obtaining patients' files because of the attack.