Air strikes against hackers

Ransom demand appears on computer screens as virus halts businesses and hits systems at Chernobyl

BRITAIN could retaliate with air strikes against a future cyber attack, the Defence Secretary has suggested.

Sir Michael Fallon warned potential attackers that a strike on UK systems “could invite a response from any domain – air, land, sea or cyberspace”.

It comes as a massive hack attack in Ukraine spread to at least one UK company, the advertising giant WPP.

The National Cyber Security Centre said it was “closely monitoring” the ransomware attack as it spread across Europe. Cyber security experts said the software was similar to the Wannacry virus that crippled the NHS in May.

In a speech at the Chatham House think tank, the Defence Secretary said the UK’S ability to carry out its own cyber attacks against Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Isil) had saved lives during the battle for Mosul in Iraq.

He said the capability was also being used in the fight for Raqqa in Syria. Meanwhile, Gen Mark Milley, the head of the US Army, said governments were relying too much on overstretched special forces to try to win conflicts.

A HUGE cyber attack paralysed firms across Europe and the US yesterday in what appeared to be a ransomware assault.

In an attack described by security experts as similar to the Wannacry hack on the NHS in May, banks, businesses and even petrol stations were brought to a standstill across the continent.

Firms in France, Poland, Belarus, Britain, the US and Germany were affected. Computer systems at the Chernobyl reactor were also hit by the virus, forcing radiation checks at the nuclear disaster site to be carried out manually. A spokesman said there was no immediate risk of radiation leaks.

The virus is believed to have started in Ukraine before rapidly spreading across Europe. Ukraine itself was badly hit: government departments, the central bank, Kiev airport and the metro network were all left crippled by the hack, which ordered victims to pay $300 (£235) in bitcoin, the online currency.

“Today’s cyber attack, the largest in the history of Ukraine, was not the last,” said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. “There will be others.”

Ransomware is a piece of malicious software that shuts down a computer system by encrypting its files before demanding money to restore them.

An adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister claimed Russia was behind the attack, which he said had the “ultimate goal” of destabilising the country.

However, the Russian oil giant Rosneft was among the victims of the hack, according to a spokesman who said its servers had suffered a “powerful” cyber attack. There were reports of firms being infected in France, Poland, Belarus, the US and Germany, including the multinational French manufacturing company Saint-gobain, US pharmaceutical giant Merck, and Maersk, a global cargo shipping company.

WPP, a British advertising firm with branches worldwide, said its IT systems had been targeted, with employees reportedly told to switch off computers and wifi networks.

“IT systems in several WPP companies have been affected by a suspected cyber attack. We are assessing the situation, taking appropriate measures,” a spokesman said yesterday evening.

DLA Piper, a global law firm with a branch in London, said it had “experienced issues with some of its systems due to suspected malware”.

It was unclear whether other British firms had been affected by the virus last night, but the National Cyber Security Centre said it was “monitoring the situation closely”.

Experts said the hack appeared to be a variant of ransomware known as Petya, which emerged in 2016. They warned that Petya and its variants could be more dangerous than Wannacry as, in some cases, they target a computer’s hard drive, rather than individual files.

“The implications of this type of cyber attack spread far and wide and can affect everything from government to banks to transportation,” said Ken Spinner, vice president of cyber security firm Varonis.

The cyber assault comes seven weeks after the Wannacry hack affected more than 150 countries and crippled parts of the NHS.

♦a senior Ukrainian military intelligence officer was killed by a car bomb in Kiev yesterday. Investigators are treating the death of Colonel Maxim Shapoval as a terrorist attack.