- Fresh ransomware attack has struck Russia and is spreading across Europe
- Virus is locking computers and demanding £280 in anonymous currency Bitcoin
- Code has been dubbed ‘Bad Rabbit’ and comes after WannaCry and Petya
Europe has been hit by a fresh ransomware attack as a virus dubbed ‘Bad Rabbit’ has locked up computers across the continent.
Affected users are seeing their screen replaced by one telling them their computer has been locked and demanding £280 in anonymous current Bitcoin to unlock.
Russia appears to be the main target of the malicious code, online security firm Kaspersky Lab reports, but computer in Ukraine, Turkey and Germany are also down.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘What is known at the moment is that Bad Rabbit ransomware has infected several big Russian media outlets, with Interfax news agency and Fontanka.ru among the confirmed victims of the malware.
‘Odessa International Airport has reported on a cyberattack on its information system, though whether it’s the same attack is not yet clear.
‘Details of the attack and its mechanism of spreading are still to be investigated, and whether it’s possible to get back files encrypted by Bad Rabbit (either by paying the ransom or by using some glitch in the ransomware code) isn’t yet known.
‘This ransomware has infected devices through a number of hacked Russian media websites. Based on our investigation, this is a targeted attack against corporate networks, using methods similar to those used in the ExPetr attack.
‘However, we cannot confirm it is related to ExPetr. We continue our investigation.’
Source: portalmaya.com