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At least eight Australian businesses have been affected by the Wannacry virus, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today - although the Prime Minister's senior cybersecurity advisor said the country may have "dodged" the worst of the emergency because it started after Australian working hours on Friday.

Cybersecurity adviser Alastair MacGibbon said the worst of the attack fell while most Australians were asleep or not at their computers, likely limiting the impact. "But this is not game over for us," he warned.

Minister Dan Tehan, said all public service in Australia had been told to update their security systems, and the government was "reasonably confident that all required patching and security upgrades were in place".

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A brief bit of business news now: London's FTSE 100 has closed at a new record high of 7,454.37 points.

That follows the previous record set by the index just last Friday.

Oil companies were boosted after energy ministers from Russia and Saudi Arabia took further steps to tackle oversupply in the market by extending production cuts from the middle of 2017 until March next year.

Anglo American, however, was the biggest riser, up 3.2%, while travel operator TUI slipped 4.8% following disappointing results, making it the biggest faller.

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The state-owned Russian Railways company confirmed that its "IT-system was subject to a virus attack", adding that "the virus has been localised and the work is under way to destroy it and renew means of anti-virus protection". 

Its passenger and freight transportation were unaffected by the incident, according to state-owned TASS news agency on 15 May.

The Russian Health Ministry said it had managed to "swiftly" fend off cyber-attacks on its servers and "close vulnerabilities", RIA Novosti quoting its representative Nikita Odintsov as saying.

John Clark, professor of computer and information security at the University of Sheffield, says the WannaCry ransomware attack has highlighted the "fragility" of our national critical infrastructure. 

"In many ways we should think ourselves lucky: if this was, as seems the case, an indiscriminate attack (ie some poorly judged actions caused IT services within the NHS to contract the disease, so to speak), think what an informed targeted attack might have! 

"This is a wake up call for the NHS and indeed for major organisations everywhere. If this is what an accidental compromise looks like, it would be prudent to worry about what a deliberate attack might cause." 

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Renault-Nissan says the only one of its plants still affected by the global ransomware attack is Douai, in northern France, where manufacturing remains suspended.

The attack halted or reduced the output of at least five Renault sites over the weekend, including the huge Sunderland plant in the UK.

The firm said lost production would be made up, but the financial impact was yet to be calculated. 

A small number of US critical infrastructure operators have been affected by the global ransomware worm, but there has been no significant disruption in their work, a Department of Homeland Security said.

There have been no victims of the cyber attack within the US federal government at this time, he added

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Two new modifications of WannaCry malware appeared over the weekend, IT firm Kaspersky Lab has told Russian news agency Interfax. 

They were probably created not by the developers of the original virus but by "other payers in the world of cybercrime", a Kaspersky staffer told Interfax.

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US stocks are up in early trade, having shrugged off the impact of the cyber attack that hit many firms and state agencies this weekend. 

The S&P 500 is up 0.40%, the Dow Jones is up 0.37% and the Nasdaq is 0.41% higher, thanks largely to a strong showing from oil-linked shares.

Oil prices jumped 2% on Monday after Russia's energy ministry released a joint statement with Saudi Arabia calling for a continuation of a deal to restrain production ahead of an Opec meeting on 25 May. 

Chevron is up 1.17%, Halliburton 2.34%, and Devon Energy 1.3%.

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According to Elliptic Enterprises, external, a London-based company that tracks illicit use of bitcoin, just $50,000 has been paid in ransom following Friday's cyber attack. But why so little?

According to Bloomberg, one reason could be that many people don't know how to use Bitcoin, the crypto currency in which victims must pay their ransom. 

The process of making a payment is complex and can take days, says Elliptic. 

First, a person or business has to obtain some bitcoin by registering with one of the various online exchanges and going through its verification process. 

After that, money can be deposited into the exchange - although for those living in countries that don’t have an exchange, such as the UK, money must be converted into another currency first.

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Organisations are being strongly advised not to pay any ransoms in response to the ransomware attack. 

Ciaran Martin, Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre which is part of GCHQ, says that globally, there is a market in targeting many, often private sector companies. 

Mr Martin told Radio 4's World At One that the Department of Health and the NHS are very clear that affected bodies in the UK will not pay.  

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Michelle Crorie - a specialty insurance legal expert and partner Clyde & Co - says companies need to be prepared in the event of a cyber attack.

She says: "By its very nature, a cybercrime incident will almost always be a race against time where decisions must be taken quickly to minimise the financial and reputational loss to the company. 

"Companies that don't adequately prepare face a real risk that directors and officers may fall short of their duties if they are found to have left their companies unprepared to respond to a cyber incident." 

She says this may not only have an impact on their companies' bottom line, but also expose directors themselves to fines, prosecution or civil proceedings. 

She also advises companies have insurance and legal cover in place.

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Weeks ago, health trusts across England were sent details of an IT security patch that would have protected them from the ransomware attack, it has emerged.

NHS Digital - which oversees the health service's IT systems - said it had issued a targeted update on a secure portal accessible to NHS staff on 25 April, alerting them to the need to update their systems.

It then sent a bulletin to more than 10,000 security and IT professionals on 27 April, alerting them to the issue. 

The attack has left 47 NHS organisations affected with malware in their system, ranging from hospital trusts to commissioning support units. Seven hospital trusts are still experiencing serious problems.

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India has said that its vital computer systems largely escaped the global ransomware attack that struck over the weekend.

That's because the state organisation that manages almost all government websites actively installed patches to immunise its Windows systems.

Aruna Sundararajan, secretary of India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, told Reuters the government was monitoring the situation and that a few stand-alone computers of a police department were "back in action" after being infected over the weekend. 

The attack has been less severe than anticipated in Asia, but industry professionals have said countries in the region remain vulnerable. 

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BBC Radio 4

Ciaran Martin, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, says there have been no new cases in the UK arising from Friday's cyber-attack. 

He tells BBC Radio 4's World at One: "Across the globe, events today have been at the lower end of our expectations. Presently we're not confirming any new cases arising from Friday's attack, we're continuing to investigate a small number of potential cases, but there is nothing new to report." 

He added there was still no evidence to suggest patient data had been stolen as a result of the attack.

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For readers logging onto these pages for the latest business news, here is a selection of the main stories outside of the cyber-attack:  

• Oil prices have jumped 2% to $52.20 after Saudi Arabia and Russia said a deal to cut production should be extended. The rise sent energy shares higher, helping the UK's FTSE 100 index hit a new record high in morning trade.
• Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google's owner is partnering with ride hailing firm Lyft. The move is set to escalate a rivalry between Waymo and Uber, which are fighting a court battle over self-driving technology.

• Budget airline AirAsia has signed a joint venture agreement to set up a new low-cost carrier in China. Chief executive Tony Fernandes said the deal completes the airline's presence in the region.

Chris Baraniuk
Technology reporter

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Hospitals in the UK’s National Health Service aren’t the only ones to have suffered at the hands of WannaCry. There have also been reports of hospitals in China, Indonesia, Canada and Ireland that have been “threatened” by the ransomware outbreak. 

In some cases, including Indonesia and the UK, this has resulted in service to patients actually being disrupted.

Cyber-security experts say that hospitals are classic examples of institutions that find it difficult to maintain IT security. 

This is because the recommended procedure of patching software to protect it from threats like ransomware actually has complications associated with it. For example, hospital technicians generally want to avoid unnecessary updates in case they disrupt important systems, such as medical devices.

Three hospitals in Ireland have also been affected by the cyber attack, it's just been announced. 

However, a spokeswoman for the Republic's Health Service Executive (HSE) says they are not naming the hospitals affected.

"It's just to allow the hospitals themselves to deal with it and so that patients are not unduly concerned. Patient care is broadly unaffected," she says. 

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The ransomware attack is being referred to as a worm, but what does this actually mean? 

Just in the way that worms can wriggle their way discretely into small nooks and crannies, a worm virus can spread from device to device.

But unlike a virus they don’t need to attach themselves to other programs. Worms can copy themselves hundreds of times, so they can very quickly harm your device and other devices. 

A worm might copy itself onto your email account for example and then send a copy to all of your email contacts.