A New Ransomware Attack Similar to WannaCry Spreading Rapidly Worldwide
Just a month after the WannaCry ransomware attack, a new threat seems to be causing mass disruption across the world.
This large-scale ransomware attack has already hit more than 12,000 machines in about 65 countries around the world.
Initially it was believed to be a new form of Petya ransomware. However, researchers have determined that it’s an entirely new strain of ransomware. This ransomware attack has affected world’s biggest shipping company, Maersk, & the radiation monitoring systems at the site of the Chernobyl disaster. Many other industries were also impacted in Ukraine such as banks, power grid companies, media outlets, the postal service as well as cell providers.
This computer virus appears to resemble the Wannacry ransomware attack that had spread like wildfire 2 months back as well as infected hundreds of thousands of computers. Two different firms have reported that the new ransomware employs the same EternalBlue exploit that was used by WannaCry, allowing it to spread quickly between infected systems.
The security firm Kaspersky Lab has asked Windows users to update their OS in order to protect against the exploit.
Microsoft said it was continuing to investigate the entirely new strain of ransomware. “Our initial analysis found that the ransomware uses multiple techniques to spread, including one which was addressed by a security update previously provided for all platforms from Windows XP to Windows 10 (MS17-010),” a spokesperson said in a statement. “As ransomware also typically spreads via email, customers should exercise caution when opening unknown files. We are continuing to investigate and will take appropriate action to protect customers.”
Everything about this situation shows that still many companies around the world have not taken WannaCry very seriously and failed to patch their systems and therefore are now paying the price.