Ukraine, Maersk hit in new wave of global cyberattacks

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Another major cyberattack appears to be ongoing, affecting a host of companies and organizations around the world on Tuesday, June 27. 

Forbes reported that Ukraine’s government, its National Bank, and power companies there all warned of cyberattacks, as airports and transportation services in Ukraine became affected by a ransomware outbreak.

Danish company Maersk also reported a cyberattack, saying on Twitter that “Maersk IT systems are down across multiple sites and business units due to a cyber attack.”

UPDATE 15:00 CEST pic.twitter.com/L5pBYvNQd3

— Maersk (@Maersk) June 27, 2017

 

“Most of our IT systems are down across all business units due to a virus. We continue to assess the situation. The safety of our operations are top of our priorities,” Concepcion Boo Arias, spokeswoman of Maersk Line, said.

The BBC also said advertising agency WPP was reporting problems, along with aircraft manufacturer Antonov, and two postal services.

IT systems in several WPP companies have been affected by a suspected cyber attack. We are taking appropriate measures & will update asap.

— WPP (@WPP) June 27, 2017

 

Mondelez and legal firm DLA Piper have also suffered attacks, while French construction materials company St Gobain has said that it has also been hit by a cyberattack.

A St Gobain spokesperson meanwhile said the company “is the target of a cyberattack. As a security measure we have isolated our computer systems to protect our data.”

Forbes added that $300 in Bitcoin is being requested as ransom, much like the WannaCry attack. 

A new #WannaCry-like massive attack on Russian and Ukrainian #Critical #Infrastructue discovered. More countries expected #Petya #infosec pic.twitter.com/hRDPHKAC8R

— Group-IB (@GroupIB_GIB) June 27, 2017

 

Ukrainian lenders

Ukraine’s central bank said a cyberattack hit several lenders in the country, hindering operations and leading the regulator to warn other financial institutions to tighten security measures.

“The National Bank of Ukraine has warned banks… about an external hacker attack on the websites of some Ukrainian banks… which was carried out today,” the bank said in a statement.

Banks were experiencing “difficulty in servicing customers and performing banking operations” due to the attacks, it said.

“All the financial market participants have taken steps to tighten security measures to counteract these hacker attacks,” it said, adding that “banking infrastructure is securely protected” and further attacks “will be efficiently warded off.”

Among the banks apparently affected was Oschadbank, one of Ukraine’s largest, it said on the website, forcing it to limit services available to clients.

“The bank’s services together with the National Bank of Ukraine are putting in maximum effort to reinstate access to all bank services,” it said.

Earlier an attack was also reported by the power company in Kiev, Kyivenergo. “We were forced to turn off all of our computers,” a company representative told Interfax Ukraine agency.

Ukraine’s delivery service company Nova Poshta, which was also attacked Tuesday, identified the virus that hit its computers as Petya.A, a type of ransomware which locks users out of the system and demands purchase of a key to reinstate access.

Rosneft attack

Russian state oil giant Rosneft, meanwhile, said its servers had suffered a “powerful” cyberattack, but insisted that production had not been hit.

“A powerful hacking attack has been carried out against the company’s servers,” Rosneft said on Twitter.

The firm added that it “hopes” the incident was “not connected to current legal proceedings,” as the company is currently suing private firm Sistema for 170 billion rubles (2.55 billion euros, $2.88 billion) over the state giant’s acquisition of oil company Bashneft. 

Russia’s leading oil producer said the attack “could have had serious consequences” but said that thanks to a back-up system “the production and extraction of oil were not stopped.” 

US drug company Merck hit

US drug giant Merck adds it has become the first American company hit by the global cyberattack which started in Russia and Ukraine and has spread through Europe and across the Atlantic.

“We confirm our company’s computer network was compromised today as part of a global hack. Other organizations have also been affected,” Merck said on Twitter.

We confirm our company’s computer network was compromised today as part of global hack. Other organizations have also been affected (1 of 2)

— Merck (@Merck) June 27, 2017

 

“We are investigating the matter and will provide additional information as we learn more.” – Victor Barreiro Jr, with reports from Agence France-Presse / Rappler.com