Petya ransomware attack spreads among corporate giants worldwide
A virulent new SAN FRANCIS CO strain of ransomware named Petya wreaked havoc on some of the most established companies in Europe and North America on Tuesday, capitalizing on the same vulnerabilities that froze hundreds of thousands of computers a month ago.
Computer security company Kaspersky Lab said about 2,000 systems worldwide have been hit.
The attack appeared to target Ukraine, where governments and businesses reported intrusions to the power grid, government offices, banks and stores.
It also spread through the digital operations of some of the planet’s biggest companies. Danish shipping giant A.P. MollerMaersk, the world’s largest overseas cargo carrier, and Russian oil behemoth Rosneft were among the high-profile corporate victims in at least six countries.
Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and British media company WPP tweeted they had been hit by Petya, as did Rosneft.
Global law firm DLA Piper said it “experienced issues with some of its systems due to suspected malware” and was working on a solution, spokesman Josh Epstein said in a statement.
By late Tuesday, the cyberattack had spread to North American divisions of European companies, said Justin Harvey, managing director of global inci- dent response at Accenture. Petya is “preying on organizations without proper patching hygiene” of the Windows operating system, he said.
Container ship terminals in Rotterdam run by a unit of Maersk were affected, the company confirmed. The attack “could have led to serious consequences but neither the oil production nor the processing has been affected,” the company said.
Petya is a ransomware attack that renders files and data inaccessible until the user pays a ransom. In this case, those behind Petya demanded $300 via bitcoin.
It’s unclear who is responsible for Petya (a nickname for Russian boys named Peter), but experts said the attack is along the lines of WannaCry, an outbreak of ransomware that rapidly spread worldwide, using digital break-in tools computer companies say was created by the U.S. National Security Agency. It infected hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries last month.