Cyber- Attack - What is Petya ransomware?

What is Petya ransomware? 

A variant of the Petya ransomware, which has been around for more than a year, was blamed for Tuesday's global attack. Petya is a vicious form of the virus that locks a computer's hard drive as well as individual files stored on it. It is harder to recover information from computers affected by this ransomware, which can also be used to steal sensitive information.

Cyber security experts Kaspersky Lab released a conflicting report that said the ransomware was not related to Petya but was in fact a new program it called NotPetya.   

How does it differ from WannaCry?

Security experts said the program could have spread in a similar way to the WannaCry attack that hit hundreds of thousands of computers including the NHS earlier this year.

Like WannaCry, Petya could have used Eternal Blue, a tool created by the National Security Agency and leaked online by the Shadow Brokers that exploits a problem in Microsoft's software.

Windows machines that are up-to-date are safe from this ransomware.

Guys

Get your Windows Updates applied as soon as possible and be safe from WannaCry ransomware.

The ransomware takes advantage of a Windows vulnerability.

Kam

Massive ransomware cyber-attack hits 74 countries around the world.

More than 45,000 attacks recorded in countries including the UK, Russia, India and China may have originated with theft of ‘cyber weapons’ from the NSA.

A ransomware cyber-attack that may have originated from the theft of “cyber weapons” linked to the US government has hobbled hospitals in England and spread to countries across the world.

Security researchers with Kasperksy Lab have recorded more than 45,000 attacks in 74 countries, including the UK, Russia, Ukraine, India, China, Italy, and Egypt. In Spain, major companies including telecommunications firm Telefonica were infected.

By Friday evening, the ransomware had spread to the United States and South America, though Europe and Russia remained the hardest hit, according to security researchers Malware Hunter Team.

This is not an attack that was meant for large institutions. It was meant for anyone who got it.

A Los Angeles hospital paid $17,000 in bitcoin to ransomware hackers last year, after a cyber-attack locked doctors and nurses out of their computer system for days.

Microsoft said its engineers had added detection and protection against a ransomware attack that had disrupted hospitals in England and infected computers in dozens of other countries around the world.

Microsoft Engineers added detection and protection against new malicious software known as Ransom:Win32.WannaCrypt,” a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement.

It said the company was working with its customers to provide additional assistance.

Be safe.