The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced that it is assessing the impact of hacking incidents on a global scale after an Italian government agency announced a global breach of computer servers through the "ransomware" virus.
"We are working with our partners from the public and private sectors to assess the impacts of these reported incidents and provide assistance when needed," the agency said.
This came after the National Agency for Cybersecurity in Italy announced, on Sunday, that thousands of computer servers around the world had been subjected to a ransom hacking attack.
"The hacking attack sought to exploit a vulnerability in the software," said the agency's director general, Roberto Baldoni, adding that it was "on a large scale," according to Reuters.
With regard to the targeted countries, the Italian news agency ANSA quoted the National Agency for Cybersecurity as saying that "servers in other European countries, such as France and Finland, as well as the United States and Canada, were hacked."