Hospitals in Britain, several companies in Spain and 11 other countries have confirmed attacks to their systems. Patient information does not appear to have been stolen or compromised, according to the National Health Service of Britain.

By Russell Goldman May 12, 2017

Right Now: Security experts warned that the full impact of the audacious cyberattack that crippled 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries might be truly felt in the new workweek as workers return to their offices and turn back on their computers.

• The spread of a “ransomware” attack against computer systems around the world affected the United States much less than other nations because a British cybersecurity researcher accidentally stopped the attack from spreading more widely, according to cybersecurity experts.
• Hackers appeared to have exploited a flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system that was first discovered by the United States National Security Agency. The flaw and a tool to exploit it with malicious software were made public in April by a hacker collective known as Shadow Brokers.