Europol, the European Union's police agency, says the international ``ransomware'' cyberattack has so far hit more than 100,000 organizations in at least 150 countries.
Spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth said Sunday that the number of individuals who have fallen victim to the cyberextortion attack could be much higher.
He said it was too early to say who is behind the onslaught and what their motivation was. He said the main challenge was the fast-spreading capabilities of the malware, but added that, so far, not many people have paid the ransoms that the virus demands.
He warned that more people may be hit by the virus Monday when they return to work and switch on their computers.
The attack that began Friday is believed to be the biggest online extortion attack ever recorded, with victims including Britain's hospital network and Germany's national railway.
Meantime, a cybersecurity expert says Canada is not immune to cyberattacks like the one that infiltrated computers around the world on Friday.
A professor at Toronto's Ryerson University says it was pure luck that largely spared Canada from being hit by the massive cyber-extortion plot.
Atty Mashatan says if the wrong person had clicked on an infected link, they could have spread the so-called ransomware to Canada.