Several countries across the world are said to have been affected by a new malware nicknamed Petya or PetrWrap, in what seems to be a rerun of the global cybarattack perpetrated by the WannaCry ransomware.
The ransomeware is also being referred to as GoldenEye — like the James Bond film — and is sending people surrying for preventive measures that can be taken against it.
The attack brings to reality fears that malware like WannaCry are lurking in dark corners of the Internet, and could wreak much more damage.
Here are 7 things to know about the Petya global ransomware attack:
1. The Petya ransomware is attacking only Windows-based systems using much the same vulnerabilities as the WannaCry malware.
2. The attack is believed to have started in Ukraine.
3. The ransomware encrypts the hard drive of an infected machine and demands $300 payment — ransom — in Bitcoin to decrypt the machine.
4. The ransomware also demands that proof of payment by those infected be sent to a specific email address hosted by German firm Posteo. The firm has now suspended that account.
5. There appears to be no kill switch to this ransomware so far. It was a kill switch that had stopped the spread of the WannaCry ransmoware.
6. The technology that Petya is based on is believed to be Eternal Blue, which was developed by the US National Security Agency and since then leaked to the world.
7. Indian companies have also started to be affected. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Maharashtra is believed to be one of the first places in India to report a Petya infection.
