- Huge cyber attack cripples firms, airports, banks and government departments in Ukraine
- Hack may have spread to Britain, with the advertising firm WPP affected
- Danish and Spanish multinationals also paralysed by attack
- Virus ‘a form of ransomware’ known as Petya
- How does ransomware work?
Major firms, airports and government departments in Ukraine have been struck by a massive cyber attack which began to spread across Europe on Tuesday afternoon.
In Ukraine, government departments, the central bank, a state-run aircraft manufacturer, the airport in Kiev and the metro network have all been paralysed by the hack.
In the UK, the advertising firm WPP said its systems had also been struck down, while in the Netherlands a major shipping firm confirmed its computer terminals were malfunctioning.
The virus is believed to be ransomware – a piece of malicious software that shuts down a computer system and then demands an extortionate sum of money to fix the problem.
It comes just a few weeks after the WannaCry hack which affected more than 150 countries and crippled parts of the NHS.
American and British analysts believe that attack, which unfolded in May, was carried out by North Korea. It remains unclear who is responsible for Tuesday’s attack.
“The National Bank of Ukraine has warned banks… about an external hacker attack on the websites of some Ukrainian banks… which was carried out today,” Ukraine’s central bank said in a statement.
We can confirm that Maersk IT systems are down across multiple sites and business units. We are currently assessing the situation.
– Maersk (@Maersk)
June 27, 2017
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Presidential Administration said it was paying “a high level of attention” to the situation.
Maersk, a Danish transport and logistics company with branches worldwide, announced that “multiple sites and business units” had been shut down after the cyber attack.
Just called my father. He says he couldn’t buy fuel at a petrol station, the system is shut down.
Everyone is disoriented.– Kateryna_Kruk (@Kateryna_Kruk)
June 27, 2017
It came as Russian oil giant Rosneft said that its servers had suffered a “powerful” cyberattack, as the company is locked in a bitter court fight with the Russian conglomerate Sistema.
“The Ukraine cabinet of ministers seems to also have been hacked. The network is down” says deputy PM. This is turning into 1 hell of a hack https://t.co/nnZrcDgOoq
– Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn)
June 27, 2017
More companies hit as attack spreads to Israel
DLA Piper, a global law firm with offices in the UK, and Merck, a Netherlands-based pharmaceutical company, have both confirmed that they have been hit by the Petya ransomware.
The confirmations come as reports are surfacing of the first instance of the attack in Israel. The most affected countries so far are Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Belarus, according to a researcher at Kaspersky.
No ‘kill switch’ for Petya
Now everyone is going to think every virus has a simple secret killswitch. It’s going to be in a TV show in the next 6 months I promise you.
– SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity)
20 May 2017
Petya inflicts more damage on machines than WannaCry as it targets the hard drive rather than individual files. “This attack doesn’t just encrypt data for a ransom – but instead hijacks computers and prevents them from working altogether,” said Ken Spinner, vice president of Varonis. “The implications of this type of cyberattack spread far and wide: and can affect everything from government to banks to transportation.”
Experts said separately that people using Windows computers at home should be safe from the attack if they have installed all updates.
More companies hit as attack spreads to Israel
DLA Piper, a global law firm with offices in the UK, and Merck, a Netherlands-based pharmaceutical company, have both confirmed that they have been hit by the Petya ransomware.
The confirmations come as reports are surfacing of the first instance of the attack in Israel. The most affected countries so far are Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Belarus, according to a researcher at Kaspersky.
No ‘kill switch’ for Petya
Now everyone is going to think every virus has a simple secret killswitch. It’s going to be in a TV show in the next 6 months I promise you.
– SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity)
20 May 2017
Petya inflicts more damage on machines than WannaCry as it targets the hard drive rather than individual files. “This attack doesn’t just encrypt data for a ransom – but instead hijacks computers and prevents them from working altogether,” said Ken Spinner, vice president of Varonis. “The implications of this type of cyberattack spread far and wide: and can affect everything from government to banks to transportation.”
Experts said separately that people using Windows computers at home should be safe from the attack if they have installed all updates.
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