Communications Authority of Kenya Director General Francis Wangusi.[Photo/Standard.co.ke]
A massive cyber- attack has been infecting computers around the world has found its way into the country.
The Communications Authority (CA) has cautioned Kenyans to keep a backup of all their files offline to ensure that they can restore them in case they are attacked.
CA Director General Francis Wangusi said the ransomware virus, which goes by the name Winery or WannaCrypt0r or WanaDecrypt0r, has been reported to have infected tens of thousands in many countries around the world and continues to spread.
Once a computer has been attacked, users cannot access their files unless they pay a 300 U.S. dollar ransom to a Bit Coin account.
Cyber security experts warned of a wider impact as more employees turned on their computers and checked e-mails.
The ransomware that has locked up hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 150 countries has been mainly spread by e-mail, hitting factories, hospitals, shops and schools worldwide.
On Monday, Microsoft said the attack should be treated by governments around the world as a “wake-up call”.
It blamed governments for storing data on software vulnerabilities which could then be accessed by hackers.
Microsoft said it had released a Windows security update in March to tackle the problem involved in the latest attack, but many users were yet to run it.