New massive ransomware attack paralyzing European banks, airports, government departments

Hot on the heels of the WannaCry attack, a massive, new, ransomware attack has struck Europe, shutting down systems in Ukraine, Britain, and Spain.

From The Telegraph:

The virus is believed to be ransomware - a piece of malicious software that shuts down a computer system and then demands an extortionate sum of money to fix the problem.

It comes just a few weeks after the WannaCry hack which affected more than 150 countries and crippled parts of the NHS.

American and British analysts believe that attack, which unfolded in May, was carried out by North Korea. It remains unclear who is responsible for Tuesday's attack.

Posted by the Deputy Prime Minister of #Ukraine, Pavlo Rozenko,
This is what's happening to government computers right now. pic.twitter.com/SxCudRt0AD

— Christian Borys (@ItsBorys) June 27, 2017

"Unexpected ransomware in bagging area" pic.twitter.com/7IUODTe4mp

— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) June 27, 2017

From Wired:

It's not yet clear where the wave of attacks originated or who is behind it. "Everyone talked about Ukraine first, but I don't know. It's worldwide," says MalwareHunterteam, a researcher with the MalwareHunterTeam analysis group.

Most troubling, perhaps, is that Petya doesn't appear suffer the same errors that stunted WannaCry's spread. The amateurish mistakes that marked that outbreak limited both the scope and the eventual payouts collected; it even included a "kill switch" that shut it off entirely after just a couple of days.

Image: Christiaan Colen