The Pennsylvania Senate Democrats have been hit Attack.Ransom by a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom that has locked senators and employees out of their computer network since the early morning hours of Friday , state officials told NBC News . In a statement , Sen. Jay Costa , the Democratic leader , said the Democrats were working with law enforcement agencies and Microsoft to resolve the problem . He did not say what payment has been demanded Attack.Ransom to unlock the data , or whether the attackers had suggested any political motive . In a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , hackers inject a network with malware that typically encrypts important data , and then demand payment Attack.Ransom in exchange for a key that releases the data . They threaten to destroy the data if they are n't paid Attack.Ransom . The Democratic senators in the state capital of Harrisburg are on their own computer network and there is no indication that other state agencies of the Republicans have been affected , said a state official who declined to be identified . The official said the Democrats had no idea whether they were targeted for any specific reason . A spokeswoman for the FBI was looking into whether that agency had been called in . A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Democrats , Stacey Witalec , declined to say whether the data was backed up elsewhere or whether the attackers had identified themselves or any motive .

The ransomware is linked to a leaked vulnerability originally kept by the National Security Agency . Major corporations across the world have been hit Attack.Ransom by a wave of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom that encrypt computers and then demand Attack.Ransom that users pay Attack.Ransom $ 300 to a bitcoin address to restore access . While countries across Europe — the United Kingdom , Ukraine , Spain and France , to name a few — were hit hardest by the outbreak , the virus has now spread to the United States . Today , one of the largest drug makers in the U.S. , Merck , reported being infected by the malware , as did the multinational law firm DLA Piper , which counts more than 20 offices in the U.S. Heritage Valley Health Systems , a health care network that runs two hospitals in Western Pennsylvania , also confirmed in a statement to Recode on Tuesday that it was a victim of the same ransomware attack Attack.Ransom that has spread around the globe . At least one surgery had to be postponed because of the hack , according to a woman interviewed by Pittsburgh Action News 4 . The malware , which has been dubbed NotPetya , has been confirmed by multiple security firms to resemble the WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , which in May infected hundreds of thousands of computers by taking advantage of a National Security Agency hacking tool called Eternal Blue . That exploit was leaked last April by a hacker or group of hackers called ShadowBrokers . Eternal Blue takes advantage of a vulnerability in the Windows operating system , for which Microsoft issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch earlier this year . Not all Windows users installed the update — hence one of the reasons WannaCry was able to spread . “ Our initial analysis found that the ransomware uses multiple techniques to spread , including one which was addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability by a security update previously provided for all platforms from Windows XP to Windows 10 , ” Microsoft said in a statement to Recode . Microsoft further advised users to exercise caution when opening files in emails from unknown sources , since malware is often spread through email attachments . Microsoft also noted that its antivirus software is capable of detecting and removing the ransomware . Ukraine appears to have been the country most affected by today ’ s ransomware outbreak , according to a chart shared in a tweet by Costin Raiu , the director of a global research team with Kaspersky Lab .

Since last Friday , over 200,000 victims in 150 countries have been hit Attack.Ransom by a massive , international ransomware cyberattack Attack.Ransom called WannaCry . Ransomware is a type of malware that works by seizing control of and blocking access to a computer ’ s files , programs , and operations . Users are then informed that they must pay Attack.Ransom a certain amount in order to regain access to their files , with the threat of permanently losing all of their data if they choose not to pay Attack.Ransom . In the WannaCry attack Attack.Ransom , users were given three days to make the payment Attack.Ransom before the fee increased , and seven days before the files would be lost forever . The massive scope and potential financial impact of the WannaCry attack Attack.Ransom has understandably caused a lot of panic , and companies and individuals alike have been rushing to protect their devices . However , this frenzy has opened up new damaging routes for fraud . One of these attack routes is through mobile applications that have been found on third-party application stores . There are various mobile applications advertising that they can be used to protect users from the WannaCry ransomware . However , our analysts found that some of these apps contained adware meant to infect the devices they are downloaded onto . Rather than protecting users ’ devices , they are causing them harm . The adware found is classified as Adware.mobidash , which is a module that attackers used to include into Android games and apps and monetize them . This adware has the capability to load webpages with ads , show other messages in the status bar , and modify the DNS server . This is quite dangerous as the real risk lies in the fact that the end user ’ s device is performing unwanted activity without their authorization . To hide this dangerous behavior , the adware doesn ’ t start to perform its malicious activity immediately ; instead , it lies latent in the device before activating after a short period of time . We have blogged a lot about digital trust , fake news , and all sorts of tricks Attack.Phishing that criminals use to get the attention of consumers to get them to click on a link . Yet we continue to be amazed by how sophisticated the manipulation of the human factor has become . It will only be a matter of time until we see the WannaCry malware expand further to trick Attack.Phishing end users into installing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a patch that allegedly prevents the new massive ransomware attack Attack.Ransom . However , this time it will not be a patch , but a new version or variant of a financially motivated malware .