Widespread cyberattack hits major European companies
KIEV: Global businesses, including shipping giant AP Moeller-maersk, advertising firm WPP Group PLC and Russian oil company PAO Rosneft, reported significant cyberattacks Tuesday against their computer systems.
It was unclear how, or if, the attacks were related, but they spread simultaneously across Europe—with some early reports of affected companies in the Us—on the heels of a global attack in May. That virus, dubbed Wannacry, inflicted most of its damage on European businesses and institutions.
The Wannacry malware locked computer systems that were old or weren’t adequately patched, demanding ransom. The attack hit hospitals in the U.K., car factories in France and smaller businesses across the continent.
An adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said a version of the Wannacry virus had hit government computer systems in that country on Tuesday, Reuters reported, though the government said shortly after the nation’s most critical systems were safe. Ukraine’s national bank, state power company and largest airport are among the targets of a huge cyber attack on government infrastructure.
Rozenko Pavlo, the deputy Prime Minister, said he and other members of the Ukrainian government were unable to access their computers.
“We also have a network ‘down’,” he wrote. “This image is being displayed by all computers of the government.”
The photo showed his PC displaying a message claiming a disk “contains errors and needs to be prepared”, urging the user not to turn it off.
The extent of the operational disruption was unclear at the affected companies. Images from other affected computers and disabled cash points showed what appeared to be ransomware, demanding a payment of $300 (£235) in Bitcoin to re-gain access to encrypted files. Analysts said the virus, named Petrwrap or Petya, appeared to work similarly to the Wannacry ransomware that infected more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries last month. That attack hit NHS hospitals and trusts, Nissan and Renault, but there were no immediate reports of computers in the UK being affected on Tuesday. Ukrainian staterun aircraft manufacturer Antonov was among the companies hit, along with power distributor Ukrenergo, which said the attack did not affect power supplies. The National Bank of Ukraine said an “unknown virus” was to blame, saying several unnamed Ukrainian banks were affected along with financial firms. “As a result of cyber attacks, these banks have difficulties with customer service and banking operations,” a statement said. “The National Bank bank is confident that the banking infrastructure’s defence against cyber fraud is properly set up and attempted cyber attacks on banks’ IT systems will be neutralised.”
Oschadbank, one of Ukraine’s largest state-owned lenders, said some of its services had been affected by a “hacking attack” but guaranteed that customer data was safe.
Computers and departure boards at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev – the largest in Ukraine – were also down. “The official site of the airport and the scoreboard with the schedule of flights aren’t working!” the airport’s acting director, Pavel Ryabikin, wrote on Facebook. The Ukrposhta state postal service, television stations and transport were also affected by the attack, which left Kiev metro passengers unable to pay using bank cards.
Rosneft, a Russian governmentowned oil firm, said it was also targeted by a “massive hacker attack” on its servers, as was steel maker Evraz.
“The cyber attack could lead to serious consequences, however, due to the fact that the Company has switched to a reserve control system, neither oil production nor preparation processes were stopped,” a statement from Rosneft said. There were confirmed reports of the virus spreading to countries including Spain, France and India. The cyber attack— a day before Ukraine marks its Constitution Day — struck hours after a high-ranking intelligence officer was assassinated in a car bombing in Kiev.
Ukraine has blamed Russia for repeated cyber attacks targeting crucial infrastructure during the past three years, including one on its power grid that left part of western Ukraine temporarily without electricity in December 2015.
Denmark’s shipping giant Maersk said on Tuesday that its computer systems had been brought down by a cyberattack. The breakdown is affecting multiple computer systems across several business units, a Maersk spokeswoman said, adding the company was assessing the situation. The company runs Maersk Line the world’s largest container operator by capacity.
The spokeswoman said she couldn’t provide details on how the computer outage was affecting the company’s flagship business, Maersk Line, the world’s largest container operator by capacity. WPP, the London based advertising conglomerate, said its I.T. systems across several companies were affected by a “suspected cyber attack” on Tuesday. “We are taking appropriate measures [and] will update asap,” the advertising company said in a tweet. DAMASCUS: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said 57 people are thought to have been killed in an Us-led air strike in an eastern Syrian town controlled by Isis.
The Uk-based war monitor said the air strike took place on Monday at dawn, hitting a building in al-mayadeen used to house dissenters against Isis’s rule. At least 15 Isis fighters and jailers were reported among the dead in the attack in Deir Ezzour province.
Activist-run media outlet Deir Ezzour 24 put the toll at 60 civilians, adding that the building belonged to an al-qaedalinked commander before it was seized by the Isis in 2014.
It was not immediately clear how either the Observatory or Deir Ezzour 24 identified the aircraft responsible for the strike. Syrian state television also said the Us-led coalition had carried out the bombing and that the building was known to hold a “large number” of civilians.
The Russian and Syrian air forces also carry out frequent attacks on Isis positions across the country. A spokesperson for the coalition has said it is investigating the reports. “With every single allegation we will take it and look into it ... If we are responsible for any civilian casualties we come forth and admit it,” US Colonel Ryan Dillon told Reuters, adding that previous Observatory reporting was exaggerated.
Independent monitor Airwars says the civilian death toll since the Us-led bombing campaign against Isis across Syria and Iraq began in 2014 totals at least 3,800 people. The Observatory’s estimate is 1,481 dead, among them 319 children.
The coalition itself has admitted culpability for the deaths of 484 civilians. Since US President Donald Trump entered office in January this year, delegating more authority to his generals, there has been a marked uptick in civilian deaths in bombing operations in the two countries.
Many of Isis’s leaders are thought to be in hiding in the area around al-mayadeen as the extremists continue to lose ground; the organisation now holds onto just a fraction of the territory under its control at the height of its powers in 2014.
Twin Us-backed campaigns to oust fighters from their last urban strongholds — Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq — are under way, led by local forces on the ground assisted by 5,000 US military advisors. The complex Syrian civil war has killed almost 500,000 people, the UN says, and is now in its seventh year. Assad visited a Russian air base at Hmeymim in western Syria on Tuesday, his first visit to the base from which Russian jets have supported his war effort.