An anonymous reader writes:
Telefonica, Spain's biggest ISP, has suffered a massive ransomware infection, with hundreds of PCs encrypted with a new ransomware strain that came out of the blue and made thousands of victims worldwide. According to reports, the situation is so bad that Telefonica's security team is telling employees to shut down their computers to prevent the ransomware from spreading.
El Mundo reports that hundreds of PCs were affected at Telefonica, but also at other Spanish companies such as Vodafona, Capgemini, Gas Natural, and Iberdrola. Bleeping Computer reports that Telefonica has sent several internal memos telling employees to disconnect from internal WiFi and VPN networks, and has even blasted alerts through the company's internal speakers to make sure all users are aware of the issue.
The ransomware responsible for these infections is a new strain called WCry (or WannaCry), and has not caused any problems before. According to security researchers, infections exploded out of the blue today, with victims all over the world, but especially Spain. It is unclear how this ransomware is spread at the moment.
