One week ago a global cyberattack dubbed “unprecedented” by Europol began infecting an estimated 200,000 of the world’s computers, starting a seven-day countdown to the destruction of data if victims didn’t pay a ransom.
On Friday, those countdowns begin reaching zero. But so far, as of 13:00 in London, the attackers have claimed only about $92,000 in payments from their widespread ransom demands, according to Elliptic Enterprises Ltd., a U.K-based company that tracks illicit use of bitcoin. The company calculates the total based on payments tracked to bitcoin addresses specified in the ransom demands.