Growing numbers of US cities — with crumbling digital infrastructure and limited defence resources — are being targeted by hackers using malware developed by the country 's National Security Agency ( NSA ) . In April 2017 , EternalBlue , a powerful exploit developed by the NSA to exploit a flaw in Microsoft ’s software , was leaked online by the as - yet - unidentified Shadow Brokers . It was used by foreign hackers in the global WannaCry and NotPetya terrorist attacks , causing losses in the millions of dollars .
Growing numbers of US cities—with crumbling digital infrastructure and limited defence resources—are being targeted by hackers using malware developed by the country's National Security Agency (NSA). In April 2017, EternalBlue, a powerful exploit developed by the NSA to target a flaw in Microsoft’s software, was dumped online by the as-yet-unidentified Shadow Brokers. It was used by foreign hackers in the global WannaCry and NotPetya cyber attacks, causing losses in the billions of dollars.