2017 World Events · Annexation, territorial jihadism, and platform influence
WannaCry ransomware outbreak
WannaCry ransomware spread globally by exploiting unpatched Windows systems, disrupting hospitals and businesses.
Evidence-led reading
What is stated, why it matters, and what remains uncertain
What this is
A specific-event record selected from the protected World Events source ledger for cross-year research. It is not an exhaustive account of 2017.
Why it matters
It made ransomware a mainstream national-security and resilience concern.
What is established here
The page faithfully exposes the submitted record and its source boundary. No claim-level evidence packet has yet upgraded the record beyond a research starting point.
What remains uncertain
Starting-point source from the submitted dataset; verify exact dates, attribution, legal posture, casualty figures, and current status before reuse.
Record narrative
Source-bounded summary
WannaCry ransomware spread globally by exploiting unpatched Windows systems, disrupting hospitals and businesses.
It made ransomware a mainstream national-security and resilience concern.
Structured fields
Record at a glance
- Stable record ID
- 2017-002
- Date or period
- 2017-05-12 onward
- Type
- Cyber incident
- Focus
- Cyber / infrastructure
- Impact scope
- Global
- Priority
- 5 of 5
- Location label
- Global cyberspace, Global
- Coordinate precision
- Cyberspace: no single coordinate
- Actors named by the source record
- North Korea attributed; hospitals; companies; governments
- Verification state
- source-start-point; sensitive details require independent verification
Geographic context
A coordinate locator, not a surveyed event footprint
No supportable coordinate is supplied for this record. The location label remains descriptive rather than geospatial.
Review location and coordinate boundariesSource and verification boundary
This remains a starting-point record
Starting-point source from the submitted dataset; verify exact dates, attribution, legal posture, casualty figures, and current status before reuse.
Citation and correction
Use the stable record ID and challenge individual propositions
A correction may concern the date, place, actors, attribution, legal status, figures, coordinate precision, source characterization, or why-pivotal summary without invalidating every other field.
2IA — International Intelligence Archive. “WannaCry ransomware outbreak.” World Events record 2017-002. Reviewed July 27, 2026. https://2ix.org/world-events/2017/2017-002/