Another Ransomware Virus Strikes Globally

Hackers carried out intense ransomware assaults on June 27 targeting agencies and businesses globally, especially Ukrainian companies. Prominent worldwide enterprises reported getting attacked, including Maersk, a Danish shipping company, Rosneft the oil and gas major of Russia, and WPP the advertising agency of Britain.

WPP tweeted that many of its establishments' IT systems had been impacted with certain suspected cyber-assault.

The assault started June 27, striking petrol stations, banks and government departments in Ukraine, prior to contaminating PCs at Rosneft followed with hitting firms in USA and Europe.

According to cyber-security companies, the ransomware attack was as typical crafted for extorting money, very much like the virus named WannaCry that wreaked havoc globally in May 2017, impacting the British NHS hospitals. Thetimes.co.uk posted this, June 30, 2017.

With major Russian companies falling target to the assault, a few security researchers were prompted to indicate that Moscow wasn't responsible for it. USA's DHS (Department of Homeland Security) too has engaged experts to monitor the assaults.

The malevolent script inside the malware locked files on PCs through encryption followed with demanding $300 as ransom from victims. However, according to Ukrainian authorities as also a few security specialists, attackers possibly made the ransomware element a cover-up.

It isn't still clear from where the attack originated. It resembles WannaCry that proliferated worldwide last month; nevertheless there are distinctions. Actually, the two viruses demanded Bitcoin payments for the ransom for restoring victims' locked files, as also exploited similar vulnerability for proliferating via networks. Group IB a cyber-security company in Moscow computed that the malware impacted some eighty firms in Ukraine and Russia.

It's reported that the virus chiefly functioned for destroying vital data, stopping Ukrainian private and public institutions from working, while created panic for the common mass. One cyber-assault during December against certain PC of one Ukrainian national energy resulted in power cut within Kiev the capital city.

Many a times Ukraine has blamed Russia as contributing for hacking assaults such as the attack on the voting system of Ukraine before the national election of 2014 as also an attack which disconnected its power plant from the Internet during 2015.

» SPAMfighter News - 7/7/2017