A series of ransomware attacks rolled out today targeting several multinational companies across Europe and government agencies.
Ukraine’s government, banks, state power utility, Kiev’s Airport, and Metro system are among the worst impacted. Government IT systems were shut down and its state grid was impacted, but power supplies were unaffected.
The attack’s hit several companies including WPP, Saint-Gobain, Evraz and Rosneft, Modelez, DLA Piper, and AP Moller-Maersk.
In an internal memo to staff at WPP, the firm claimed it “had experienced a massive global malware attack, affecting all Windows servers, PCs and laptops” and warned all employees using Windows to turn off and disconnect all machines.
Technology experts believe the malware is an updated variant of the virus known as Petya or Petrwrap. Those impacted by the attack are shown a message on their computer screen claiming, "Your files are no longer accessible because they have been encrypted," then demanding $300 in Bitcoin in exchange for the encrypted data.
Security analysts at Symantec have confirmed the ransomware was using the same Eternal Blue exploit as last month’s WannaCry ransomware attack, which impacted more than 230,000 victims in more than 150 countries around the world.
The Eternal Blue exploit was leaked by the hacker group called the ‘Shadow Brokers’ back in April and is said to be developed by the NSA.
NNT advises you to make sure the latest MS patches are applied to all IT systems at all times- MS have now released patches for all Windows platforms, including those deemed unsupported such as Windows XP. We also suggest removing SMB V1 entirely from any system. Using this report here will verify that this is the case. The report will check for the existence of Registry Key and verify that it’s set to 0 or Disabled.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\SMB1
Read this on the Guardian