After Wannacry, Petya Ransomware hits Europe. Kaspersky Lab names it NotPetya

Source: Mihir

Just after the world got over with Wannacry ransomware, another Ransomware named Petya hits Europe, shutting down major firms in Ukraine, Britain and Spain. The cyber attack has crippled various big firms, major banks, oil companies, airports and government departments in Ukraine. Companies asked their employees to remove all the laptops and systems from docking stations and stay off the grid. Officials started reporting serious disruptions in the Ukranian power grid as the ransomware is spreading swiftly to various computers.

Romanian cybersecurity company Bitdefender- "A massive ransomware campaign is currently unfolding worldwide."

Many people posted pictures of their encrypted and locked systems on social networking sites, especially Twitter.

Unpatched PC's were hit again by #Petya #ransomeware.
POS, Banks, ATMs, Airport, GOV, Media companies, Metro, Cargo, Post...#Eternalblue pic.twitter.com/4n0VosQDuz

— Lukas Stefanko (@LukasStefanko) June 27, 2017

Current situation of Petrwrap/wowsmith123456 ransomware - percentage of infections by country. pic.twitter.com/Q42WPlBlja

— Costin Raiu (@craiu) June 27, 2017

Heads-up folks. Global ransomware outbreak happening right now https://t.co/2wIgcDnuJ3 pic.twitter.com/AqCqL1Q7nJ

— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) June 27, 2017

An interesting aspect of this attack is the targeted filetypes. The intended victims are rather different from Petya or 'normal' ransomware. pic.twitter.com/mTRcPTHbpF

— Yonathan Klijnsma (@ydklijnsma) June 27, 2017

The major problem with Petya ransomware is that it does not have any Killswitch domain like Wannacry. Security experts are having a tough time in cracking this one. Petya ransomware is one notch above the previous ransomware Wannacry/Wannacrypt. The attack hijacks computer for a ransom by targeting its hard drive instead of individual files. According to Accenture, those behind Petya, who are demanding $300 via bitcoin, claimed to have received more than $4,000 so far.

World's largest internet security firm, Kaspersky Lab revealed one more interesting fact about the ransomware. According to them, systems in Russia and Ukraine are amongst the most heavily hit along with UK, Germany, Italy, US and France. Kaspersky Lab also added that this ransomware is not a variant of Petya but something different and new altogether and therefore named it NotPetya.

The latest from @kaspersky researchers on #Petya: it’s actually #NotPetya pic.twitter.com/uTVBUul8Yt

— Kaspersky Lab (@kaspersky) June 27, 2017

There is still very little information or data about how to stop this attack. Keeping one's system updated with all the security patches is the only option left.

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Author: Bharat Khurana