China has urged Windows users to protect themselves against a new ransomware virus similar to the WannaCry bug that wreaked havoc worldwide last week.
“UIWIX” encrypts and renames files through a bug in the Windows operating system, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) warned in a public announcement on Thursday, telling users to install the latest Microsoft update.
The warning comes on the heels of the “WannaCry” cyberattack, which has hit hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. While no UIWIX infections have yet been detected in China, the virus has spread in other countries and prompted a security alert last week from the Danish cybersecurity company Heimdal Security.
“UIWIX ransom-ware is picking up where the first WannaCry wave left off, without a kill switch domain and the same self-replicating abilities that enable it to spread fast,” the firm said.
Heimdal cautioned that the new bug could be more powerful than WannaCry due to the absence of a kill switch domain that could contain the virus’s distribution.
