Cyber attack spreads globally
• Ukraine computer virus hits operations including Australian chocolate factory, Russian crude producer and Danish shipping firm
A cyber attack has wreaked havoc around the globe, crippling thousands of computers, disrupting operations at ports from Mumbai to Los Angeles and halting production at a chocolate factory in Australia.
A cyber attack has wreaked havoc around the globe, crippling thousands of computers, disrupting operations at ports from Mumbai to Los Angeles and halting production at a chocolate factory in Australia.
The virus is believed to have first taken hold on Tuesday in Ukraine, where it infected computers after users downloaded a popular tax accounting package or visited a local news site, national police and international cyber experts said.
The malicious code locked machines and demanded that victims pay a ransom of $300 in bitcoins or lose their data.
More than 30 victims paid up, but experts are querying whether extortion was the goal, given the relatively small sum demanded, or whether the hackers were driven by destructive motives instead.
Ukraine, the epicentre of the cyber strike, has repeatedly accused Russia of orchestrating attacks on its computer systems and critical power infrastructure since its neighbour annexed Crimea in 2014.
The Kremlin, which has consistently rejected the accusations, said on Wednesday it had no information about the origin of the global cyber attack that also struck Russian companies such as oil conglomerate Rosneft and a steel producer.
ESET, a Slovakian company which sells products to shield computers from viruses, said 80% of the infections detected among its global customers were in Ukraine, with Italy the second-worst with about 10%.
The aim of the latest attack appeared to have been disruption rather than ransom, said Brian Lord, former deputy director of intelligence and cyber operations at Britain’s GCHQ and now MD at private security firm PGI Cyber.
“My sense is this starts to look like a state operating through a proxy … as a kind of experiment to see what happens,” said Lord.
While the malware seemed to be a variant of past attacks, derived from code believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency, experts said it was not as virulent as the WannaCry attack.
Tuesday’s virus could leap from computer to computer within an organisation, but unlike WannaCry, it could not randomly trawl the internet for its next victims.
After WannaCry, governments, security firms and industrial groups advised businesses and consumers to make sure all their computers were updated with Microsoft security patches. This helped to curb the latest malware, though its rapid spread underlined concerns that some businesses had still failed to secure their networks from potential hackers.
Austria’s governmentbacked Computer Emergency Response Team said “a small number” of international firms appeared to be affected, with tens of thousands of computers taken down.
A number of the international firms hit have operations in Ukraine and the virus is believed to have spread within global corporate networks after gaining traction in that country.
AP Moller-Maersk, which handles one in seven containers shipped worldwide, has a logistics unit in Ukraine.
Other large firms affected, such as French construction materials company Saint Gobain and Mondelez International, which owns chocolate brand Cadbury, also have operations in the country.
Production at the Cadbury factory on the Australian island state of Tasmania ground to a halt late on Tuesday after computer systems went down.
Maersk was one of the first global firms to be taken down by the cyber attack and its operations at major ports such as Mumbai, Rotterdam and Los Angeles were disrupted.
On Wednesday, the company said it was unable to process new orders and its 76 terminals around the world were becoming increasingly congested.
Other companies to succumb included Russia’s Rosneft, one of the world’s biggest crude producers by volume.
EXPERTS ARE QUERYING WHETHER EXTORTION WAS THE GOAL, GIVEN THE SMALL SUM DEMANDED