Law enforcement agencies believe the global cyberattack was the work of criminals rather than being state sponsored

More than $42,000 has been paid to the perpetrators of the global cyberattack but none of the money has yet been taken out of the accounts where the money was sent.

Law enforcement agencies are keeping watch over three online accounts to which victims were told to send bitcoins, the digital currency. Security officials said yesterday that their working assumption was that the hack was the work of criminals rather than a state-sponsored attack.

Officers from the National Crime Agency are working with their counterparts at Europol, the continent’s law enforcement agency, and GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre to track down the perpetrators.

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said yesterday: “Our working assumption, as with every other major ransomware attack, is that this is