In May 2017, the United States’ IT systems were affected by a “ransomware” worm known as WannaCry,which rapidly spread through a number of computer networks. Considered one of the most serious cyber-attacks in American history, it infected Windows computers by encrypting all files in the hard drive of the PC, thus making them inaccessible by the users. It would then demand a ransom payment in bitcoins to decrypt the files. Considering that the attack focused on high-profile systems, for instance, the National Health Service, major hospitals, and healthcare businesses, it limited access to a lot of crucial health information essential to the American government.

To access the required information promptly, the affected parties were forced to pay the bitcoins, which led to huge financial losses.The cyber-attack was later halted with the help of Marcus Hutchins, nicknamed “Malwaretech”((Fruhlinger, 2018). Sadly, the attack had affected the credibility of the involved institutions and led to the loss of many clients who believed their personal information was no longer secure in the organizations’ databases. Although the affected institutions have so far argued that they have devised strategies that ensure optimal data security, there are still fears about other attacks targeting sensitive client information.