Worldwide cyber attack affects Brazilian social security system

A cyber attack which has struck worldwide hit the network of several Brazilian public institutes, including the social security system, local authorities said Friday.

The attack by the ransomware, dubbed "WannaCry," whose authorship has not been claimed yet, started in Europe on Friday morning and spread all over the world, hitting dozens of countries.

In Brazil, the state social security system has instructed all agencies to disconnect their computers from networks. All the public access to the agency was cancelled for the day including the social security hotline.

Some other prominent government institutes were also affected. The federal police has sent intelligence forces to work on the problem.

The Sao Paulo State Justice announced their computers were hit, adding the servers were not affected, however. Other states admitted that their court systems were affected as well.

Oil giant Petrobras and the Foreign Ministry said they took down their system as a precaution. The ministry's website was down all day.

The attack, boiling down to a computer virus that makes users' computers useless unless a payment is made to those who hacked their system, has prompted wide alarm around the globe. Endi