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Ransomware attack using Kaseya software affected 1,500 businesses worldwide
The hackers have demanded $70 million to restore all the affected businesses' data. Among the businesses affected are supermarkets in Sweden, IT companies in Germany and the Netherlands, and schools and kindergartens in New Zealand.
As many as 1,500 businesses around the world have been affected by the biggest ransomware attack to be recorded in history, the chief executive of American IT form Kaseya has said. A software developed by the company was used as a conduit by hackers linked to Russia to launch the attack.
The firm's CEO Fred Voccola said that they are still trying to estimate the precise impact of Friday's attack.
Kaseya is a company which provides software tools to IT outsourcing shops: companies that typically handle back-office work for companies too small or modestly resourced to have their own tech departments.
The hackers, believed to be linked to the notorious REvil group, used the VSA software developed by Kaseya which helps companies remotely monitor their computer systems. The company said it sent a detection tool to nearly 900 customers.
The disruption has been felt more keenly in Sweden, where hundreds of supermarkets had to close because their cash registers were inoperative, and New Zealand, where schools and kindergartens were knocked offline.
A German IT company and two big Dutch IT services companies were also among the victims.
The hackers who claimed responsibility for the breach have demanded $70 million to restore all the affected businesses' data. They got in touch with news agency Reuters and one of their representatives, without identifying the name, said, "We are always ready to negotiate."
On Sunday, the White House said it was checking to see whether there was any "national risk" posed by ransomware outbreak but Voccola said that - so far - he was not aware of any nationally important organizations being hit.
Ransomware criminals break into networks and sow malware that cripples networks on activation by scrambling all their data. Victims get a decoder key when they pay up.
