We should learn more about the implications of a global “ransomware” attack on vulnerable computers this week. Computers networks everywhere – ranging from hospitals in the United Kingdom to the Bank of China’s ATM machines – were disabled.

Hackers used recently leaked Malware built by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The malware took advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows the NSA had identified and purposely kept hidden.

We can expect the NSA and its supporters in Washington to dodge all accountability. All blame will instead be laid at the feet of Wikileaks and the insiders who revealed the virus and put the NSA’s activities on display.

Should the attack lead to prolonged outages, we can expect markets to respond – perhaps with some flight to safety, which would help precious metals.