'Petya'
Ransomware attack strikes companies across Europe.
A major cyber-attack has struck large multinational companies across Europe, with Ukraine’s government, banks, state power utility and Kiev’s airport and metro system particularly badly affected.
The attack has caused serious disruption at firms including the advertising giant WPP, French construction materials company Saint-Gobain and Russian steel and oil firms Evraz and Rosneft.
Spanish media reported that multinationals such as the food giant Mondelez and legal firm DLA Piper had suffered attacks, while the Danish shipping and transport giant AP Moller-Maersk said it had also been hit.
WPP said in a statement on Tuesday that the computer systems at several of its subsidiary companies had been affected, adding that it was “assessing the situation and taking appropriate measures”.
In an internal memo to staff, one WPP firm said it was the target of “a massive global malware attack, affecting all Windows servers, PCs and laptops”. It warned employes to turn off and disconnect all machines using Windows.
Technology experts said the attack appeared consistent with ransomware described as an “updated variant” of a malware virus known as Petya or Petrwrap.
Analysts at cyber security form Symantec said they had confirmed the ransomware was using the same exploit – a program that takes advantage of a software vulnerability – as last month’s WannaCry or WannaCrypt ransomware attack.
That attack affected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries, with the UK’s national health service, Spanish phone giant Telefónica and German state railways among those hardest hit.
The exploit - called EternalBlue - was leaked by the Shadow Brokers hacker group in April and is thought to have been developed by the US National Security Agency.
Pictures circulating on social media of screens purportedly affected by the Petya attack showed a message stating, “Your files are no longer accessible because they have been encrypted,” and demanding a $300 ransom in the Bitcoin digital currency.
The attack affected all business units at Maersk, including container shipping, port and tug boat operations, oil and gas production, drilling services, and oil tankers, the company said, as well as seventeen container terminals.
“We can confirm that Maersk IT systems are down across multiple sites and business units due to a cyber-attack,” the Copenhagen-based firm said on Twitter. “We continue to assess the situation.”
The disruptions in Ukraine follow a rash of hacking attempts on state websites in late 2016 and a succession of attacks on the national electricity grid that prompted security chiefs to call for improved cyber defences.
The country’s prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, said the attack was “unprecedented” but vital systems had not been affected. “Our IT experts are doing their job and protecting critical infrastructure,” he said. “The attack will be repelled and the perpetrators will be tracked down.”
Deputy prime minister Pavlo Rozenko tweeted a picture of a darkened computer screen and said the government’s IT system had been shut down. The state grid, Ukrenergo, said its system had been hit but power supplies were unaffected.
The central bank said an “unknown virus” was to blame for the latest attacks. “As a result of these cyber-attacks, these banks are having difficulties with client services and carrying out banking operations,” it said in a statement.
Ukraine has blamed Russia for previous cyber-ttacks, including one on its power grid at the end of 2015 that left part of western Ukraine temporarily without electricity. Russia has denied carrying out cyber-attacks on Ukraine.
Nicolas Duvinage, head of the French military’s digital crime unit, told Agence France-Presse the attack was “a bit like a flu epidemic in winter”, adding: “We will get many of these viral attack waves in coming months.”
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