Petwrap is believed to be an advanced version of old Petya ransomware
After the recent Wanna-Cry attack, once again the cyber world is hit with a new ransomware that is threatening the users across the globe, including consumer, shipping, aviation and oil and gas companies in India and Europe.
Petwrap, which is believed to be an advanced version of old Petya ransomware, has already locked as many as 20 companies around the world and demanded $300 per company to free them up, Economic Times reported.
According to the report, Indian subsidiaries of UK and Russia-based oil and gas, energy and aviation companies were all hit by the ransomware on Tuesday along with companies such as Mondelez, Merck and Maersk.
“Cyber-criminals are exploiting the fact that companies have very limited visibility behind their firewalls,” the newspaper quoted Shir Hidayatullah, CEO of cyber security company Smokescreen Technologies.
“Coupled with the fact that ransomware attacks are easier to monetize, they are becoming the weapon of choice for the modern attacker. Of even greater concern is the growing number of highly-targeted ransomware campaigns that are significantly more damaging than mass spread attacks,” he added.
A spokesperson for Mondelez International also confirmed the news saying that the company’s network is experiencing global IT outage. Concepcion Boo Arias, spokesperson at world’s largest container line Mawrsk also confirmed to ET that their IT systems across multiple sites and business units are down.
The Mumbai-based Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust also confirmed that the operations at Gateway Terminals India, operated by Maersk Group owned APM Terminals has been impacted. French glassmaker Saint-Gobain and British media company WPP Plc were also targeted.