The world is feeling scarier by the day.

North Korea’s missile threats are no laughing matter. The television news pairs feel-good stories about Fourth of July celebrations with ominous notes about shows of force by police at those same events. And nobody seems to know quite what to think about an outbreak of hacking attacks that commands headlines around the world.

No sooner did Fortune put to bed its July cover packaged titled simply, “Hacked,” then another assault hit computers around the globe. The list of victims is dizzying. Lawyers at DLA Piper were forced to work from home. A Pennsylvania hospital delayed operations. Shipping giants Maersk and Federal Express (FDX, -0.03%) saw operations ground to a halt.

Worse, no one seems to be quite sure who’s doing the attacking or why. Reasonable people are scared. I came home from a week-long vacation to find multiple emails from my corporate IT department warning me not to open “phishing” attempts.

Read more details here.

Author: Adam Lashinsky