Major Cyber Attack Reported by Firms Worldwide
Around the globe firms are reporting they have been victims of a large scale cyber attack.
British advertising agency WPP is just one of dozens of firms reporting of a possible breach of data. Firms in Ukraine were among the first to report of issues with a state power distributor and one of Kiev's main airports as being breached.
"It appears to be a variant of a piece of ransomware that emerged last year. It was updated earlier in 2017 by the criminals when certain aspects were defeated. The ransomware was called Petya and the updated version Petrwap" said Alan Woodward a computer scientist at Surrey University.
Other companies reporting of issues are the Ukrainian Central Bank, Antonov (an aircraft manufacturer), two Ukrainian postal services, and St Gobain (a French construction material producer).
Russian oil producer Rosneft and Maersk, a Danish shopping company, claim that they also face disruption of their services including their offices based in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Of the companies currently affected it seems that Ukraine has been hit the hardest with Petya. As the ransomware gains momentum it is possible to see a worldwide infection in the coming days as there is no known kill switch as of yet.
