Petya ransomware proliferation hard to contain, say experts

Manama : The latest global cyber-attack is expected to be more severe than the previous one, cyber security experts warned.

The ransomware ‘Petya’ has already hit 65 countries and is rapidly spreading across the world. 

According to Microsoft, the infection first appeared in a tax accounting software from a Ukrainian company called M.E.Doc. 

PETA has wrecked havoc in Ukraine, one of the high profile victims include drug company Merc. 

Hospitals in Pennsylvania’s Heritage Valley Health System have also been hit by the attack. 

Last month, the ‘Wannacry’ ransomware which has reached over 150 countries, made headlines all over the world. 

The way that both of these malwares work is that it takes over the victim’s computer so that the hackers can demand a ransom payment.

Scott Manson, Cyber Security Leader for Middle East and Turkey, Cisco told DT News that computer systems in the GCC are at an equal risk from being infected by Petya when compared to the rest of the world. 

“The reason why we are seeing more of these kinds of attacks is because these ransomware is set up to easily get into the network and into device and can be spread very quickly across multiple countries, organizations and different verticals. What we find is that ransomware are finding easy targets. People don’t keep their machines upto date and this is a big issue that we are seeing and this why the spread goes so quickly,” he said.

“I think Petya is actually more severe because this latest piece of ransomware has actually learned a lot from the inadequacies of Wannacry. So it’s built in a way that it does not have an obvious kill-switch. So it’s actually harder to contain it and harder to stop it from proliferating across organizations. I actually think its  more  dangerous,” he added.

Steven Malone, director of security product management at Mimecast, said “The rapid pace of this new Petya ransomware attack points at another worm that can spread from computer to computer by itself. This new outbreak once again highlights the disruptive power of ransomware like never before. Simply by encrypting and blocking access to files, critical national services and valuable business data can be damaged.”