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Article snippet: On Sunday, union representatives for a Renault auto plant in France received text messages from the management: Tell the workers to stay home the next day. The company was still dealing with the fallout from a global hack that hit thousands of businesses and the factory would be shut. Since the hack was first detected on Friday, the company’s technicians have been racing to assess the damage. They have cleaned and rebooted systems that control robots on Renault’s factory floors, trying to make sure their systems were back to normal. As universities, hospitals and businesses around the world continue to take stock from a global hack that has locked up at least 200,000 machines since last week, they are going through much the same process. Many are also trying to determine if they have lost any data or if their systems are safe. Some are trying to figure out whether they should pay the ransom, or whether they have backups that will allow them to avoid giving in. On Saturday morning, technicians inspecting computers at Renault’s Sandouville operation in northern France found a demand in French for a $300 Bitcoin ransom with a threat to erase data. The carmaker decided not to pay. But Renault will face other costs from shutting factories. Production is slowed, for example, and it will need to pay partial unemployment insurance for the thousands of employees at the Douai site who were not able to work on Monday. The fallout for companies and institutions is growing by... Link to the full article to read more