Sharper Point: Four takeaways from the WannaCry cyberattack

There are many troubling things about the recent WannaCry cyberattack that affected millions of people around the world over the weekend, but I was able to narrow it down to four.

First off, we should take this as a hint that government shouldn’t be in charge of certain things. If their technicians ignored the necessary updates to avoid this attack, can we trust them to run something like a national health care system?

Also, instead of alerting software companies that it had found an error, the U.S. government identified the WannaCry cyberattack and then let important documents about the attack slip through their fingers. Instead of getting a leg up on terrorists, the government inadvertently aided them.

A lot of the people affected only have themselves to blame. As I said, Microsoft sent out an update to their software after they discovered this flaw.

How many saw the update warning and, rather than clicking “update,” closed it out and went back to binge-watching Netflix?

Finally, would it kill the people who launched this attack to use the money for a good cause? Maybe English classes so people can actually understand your demands?

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