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Ukrainian Banks, Electricity Firm Hit by Fresh Cyber Attack; Reports Claim the Ransomware Is Quickly Spreading Across the World (vice.com)
A massive cyber attack has disrupted businesses and services in Ukraine on Tuesday, bringing down the government's website and sparking officials to warn that airline flights to and from the country's capital city Kiev could face delays. Motherboard reports that the ransomware is quickly spreading across the world. From a report: A number of Ukrainian banks and companies, including the state power distributor, were hit by a cyber attack on Tuesday that disrupted some operations (a non-paywalled source), the Ukrainian central bank said. The latest disruptions follow a spate of hacking attempts on state websites in late-2016 and repeated attacks on Ukraine's power grid that prompted security chiefs to call for improved cyber defences. The central bank said an "unknown virus" was to blame for the latest attacks, but did not give further details or say which banks and firms had been affected. "As a result of these cyber attacks these banks are having difficulties with client services and carrying out banking operations," the central bank said in a statement. BBC reports that Ukraine's aircraft manufacturer Antonov, two postal services, Russian oil producer Rosneft and Danish shipping company Maersk are also facing "disruption, including its offices in the UK and Ireland."
According to local media reports, the "unknown virus" cited above is a ransomware strain known as Petya.A. Here's how Petya encrypts files on a system (video). News outlet Motherboard reports that Petya has hit targets in Spain, France, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries as well. From the report: "We are seeing several thousands of infection attempts at the moment, comparable in size to Wannacry's first hours," Costin Raiu, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, told Motherboard in an online chat. Judging by photos posted to Twitter and images provided by sources, many of the alleged attacks involved a piece of ransomware that displays red text on a black background, and demands $300 worth of bitcoin. "If you see this text, then your files are no longer accessible, because they are encrypted," the text reads, according to one of the photos. "Perhaps you are busy looking for a way to recover your files, but don't waste your time. Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service."
According to local media reports, the "unknown virus" cited above is a ransomware strain known as Petya.A. Here's how Petya encrypts files on a system (video). News outlet Motherboard reports that Petya has hit targets in Spain, France, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries as well. From the report: "We are seeing several thousands of infection attempts at the moment, comparable in size to Wannacry's first hours," Costin Raiu, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, told Motherboard in an online chat. Judging by photos posted to Twitter and images provided by sources, many of the alleged attacks involved a piece of ransomware that displays red text on a black background, and demands $300 worth of bitcoin. "If you see this text, then your files are no longer accessible, because they are encrypted," the text reads, according to one of the photos. "Perhaps you are busy looking for a way to recover your files, but don't waste your time. Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service."
Slashdot editors receive a lot of flak when they run dupes, or miss out on good stories. But this story about the ongoing cyber attack is literally the only one that makes sense - and I have read FT, NYT, and WSJ copies. Insightful summary, and perfectly stitched together. Kudos.
Disconnected backup/restore.
These sorts of malware are perfectly capable of encrypting a connected external or network drive.
#DeleteChrome
Would have been nice if some government agency had found vulnerabilities, they would have tipped off the vendors to patch them. Only sociopaths would have failed to improve the world by trying to use them for their own benefit.
Seems like the story is missing a key piece of information
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It's not a home invasion if the intruder presents himself as a delivery man / pizza guy, and you subsequently open the door.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Well, I'm up in Canada, so maybe it's different south of the border, but up here I've had meetings with Assistant Deputy Ministers, which are about two steps down from the political office-holder (the Cabinet Minister). I've had my disagreements with them, and certainly have felt they've made some decisions that I thought were, shall we say, less than optimal, but I've never seen evidence of them being bad or selfish people.
I can't say the same for some cabinet ministers (what Americans would call Secretaries), mind you. I've never directly interacted with anyone at the political level, but there have been or two whose actions I've seen that have lead to believe that if they're not outright sociopaths, then at least they're quite callous and bullying. There's an old joke in the Westminster tradition that the best cabinet minister is the cabinet minister who understands that it's not his job to micromanage his department. I have seen cabinet ministers who very much believed they had the knowledge and capability to do just that, and like a crappy CEO in a private setting, they can leave ruin and poor morale in their wake. Many years ago I saw one Ministry see an exodus of everyone from frontline public sector workers up to higher level civil servants start getting out, and that always suggests a department with very poor leadership.
That being said, I don't think even most politicians are sociopaths. I think they can get woefully out of touch with their constituents, and the problem here in Canada, as I'm sure it is in the US, is that voters will tend to vote based on team jersey in many cases rather than on anyone's record, so the same bad actors seem to be able to hang on to their jobs for a rather long time.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.