hacker hit Ukraine ’s national bank , the State Department power provider , an airport , and a number of other agencies and companieswith a ransomware attack on Tuesday . This pull up stakes top - ranking Ukrainian officials ineffectual to get at information processing system and an untold number of citizens unable to get at their money . The scariest part ? The United States could be next .
So far the ransomware attack appear to have touch over 80 company in Ukraine , Russia , England , and India . hacker are necessitate $ 300 in bitcoin to unlock the affected computers . One representative of the power company Kyivenergotold the Interfax - Ukraine news agencythat his troupe turned off all of their information processing system after the attack , and they were “ await for permission from Ukraine ’s Security Service to swop them back on . ”
Meanwhile , Anton Gerashchenko , an aide-de-camp to the Interior Ministry , called the attack“the biggest in Ukraine ’s history ” in a Facebook post . He went on to take that it ’s “ disguised as an extortion attempt ” but actually aimed at “ the destabilization of the economical state of affairs and in the civil consciousness of Ukraine . ” Which , in the context of recent cyber attacks target Ukraine , makes total sense .
Some of our gov agencies , secret firm were hit by a virus . No motivation to panic , we ’re putting utmost efforts to undertake the publication 👌 pic.twitter.com/RsDnwZD5Oj
— Ukraine / Україна ( @Ukraine)June 27 , 2017
Before we get into the geopolitical import , though , let ’s talk about the ransomware itself . The Swiss Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance ( MELANI ) has name the ransomware as Petya , a cyber weapon that ’s been recognize in the wilderness before . Although it seem to be targeting Ukraine mainly , the scale of this ransomware attack is already being compared to WannaCry , a monolithic violation that get down computer systems around the world in May . This month , everyone from the Ukrainian government agencies to the Danish merchant vessels ship’s company Maersk appear to be affected . The lean of targets will in all likelihood grow in the coming hour and daylight .
This latest , monumental blast is one of one thousand that have hit Ukraine in the past duad of years . However , after two sequential attacks last year thatbrought down parting of the major power gridin the country ’s cap , Kiev , it ’s clear that the drudge are step up their efforts . The timing of Tuesday ’s attack was in particular funny , too . The string of assaults came just a few hours after a top - ranking Ukrainian military intelligence activity officerwas killed in a Kiev car - bombardment .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/879677566382215169
It ’s too early to evidence whether these incidents are linked , but the tendency towards more utmost cyber war stemming from conflict in the region is undeniable .
Many , including Ukrainian president Petro Porshenko , conceive that Russian state - shop at hackers have targeted Ukraine in the past times in an effort to countermine the country ’s political unconscious process , economical fortunes , and physical base . The spike in plan of attack dates back to 2014 , when the Ukrainian Revolutionremoved Kremlin - endorse President Viktor Yanukovychfrom power . Not long after that , a pro - Russian hacker group called CyberBerkut undertake to rig the Ukrainian election . The same mathematical group has links to the hackers the infiltrated the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) ahead of the 2016 US presidential election .
So you’re able to see how all of this topsy-turvydom is set off to seem like it might make its way stateside . As Wired ’s Andy Greenberg explainsin the powder magazine ’s cover storythis month , however , it already has . Greenbergreports :
But many global cybersecurity psychoanalyst have a much large theory about the endgame of Ukraine ’s hacking epidemic : They conceive Russia is using the country as a cyberwar testing ground — a research lab for perfecting new forms of world-wide online combat . And the digital explosive that Russia has repeatedly set off in Ukraine are I it has set at least once before in the civil substructure of the United States .
The report goes on to join a Russian cyber-terrorist mathematical group called Sandworm with BlackEnergy , a destructive stock of malware found not only on the calculator of Ukrainian utility companies but also “ on the meshwork of American king and water utilities . ” Security research at Dragos have also tie Sandworm hacker to CrashOverride , the ultra various cyber weaponused to make in the 2016 Kiev brownout .
If your head teacher is start out to whirl with the many disparate link from Ukrainian cyber chaos to the potential drop for a catastrophic plan of attack on US base , that ’s the distributor point . This is all very scary hooey , pull from a Hollywood cyber-terrorist movie like Blackhat but 100 times more frightening since these cyber artillery are very real and very sophisticated .
[ New York Times , Wired ]
Update 11:45am – Just in sheath you were n’t concerned already :
Chornobyl nuclear power plant has switched to manual radiation monitoring of internet site b / c cyberattack , enunciate Exclusion Zone government agency pressing military service .
— Christopher Miller ( @ChristopherJM)June 27 , 2017
HackersHackingRussiaSecurityUkraine
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