Original article from LesAffaires (french)
The massive cyber attack that hit businesses Tuesday around the world is similar to that caused in May by the ransomware WannaCry, but appears “more sophisticated,” Europol said Wednesday.
“There are clear resemblances to the WannaCry attack, but it also seems to be an attack with more sophisticated capabilities, to exploit a series of weaknesses,” the head of the WannaCry agency said in a statement. European police force, Rob Wainwright.
On May 12, “Wannacry” had affected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, paralyzing in particular the British health services and factories of the French car manufacturer Renault.
According to Europol, Tuesday’s attack was caused by an improved version of Petya’s ransomware, which has been in circulation since 2016.
“This shows how cybercrime is evolving and, once again, reminds companies of the importance of taking responsible cybersecurity measures,” Wainwright added.
The new wave of ransomware attacks started on Tuesday in Ukraine and Russia has contaminated thousands of computers worldwide, disrupting critical and multinational infrastructures. The damage was relatively moderate and the threat seemed to be contained on Wednesday.
Loss of confidence in digital?
The multiplication of cyber attacks, similar to the one that affects the world since Tuesday, highlights to the general public the risk inherent in an increasingly connected economy.
“This is going to happen again and again because digital transformation is not taken seriously, which can have an impact on public confidence in digital,” said Dmitry Bagrov, CEO of the US DataArt for the UK.
The global cyber attack on ransomware, started Tuesday in Ukraine and Russia, however seemed contained on Wednesday but recalls the vulnerability of critical infrastructures.
As the economy gets more digitized, the opportunities for attack are increasing for cybercriminals who take advantage of a lack of adaptation of certain companies to the trouble of harmonizing systems from different eras.
At the same time, in the face of rising risk, insurers, such as Axa, are seeing “stronger demands for guarantees from companies and sectors that may have felt less concerned before the recent attacks”.
“If you look at the ransomware WannaCry (which has swept around the world in May, editor’s note), it has only concerned 400,000 computers on more than two billion machines, it is a very low percentage, bringing things to their proper perspective, “says Vincent Maret, partner and cyber security officer for KPMG.
In the opinion of the experts, no company questions its digital transition, since the subject becomes a decisive element of differentiation.
“SMEs have understood the model of digital transformation and the benefits of services available through the cloud. Overall, security is widely assured and the subjects that remain to be dealt with are not of this order “, explains Michaël Bittan, partner and responsible for cyber risk management activities at Deloitte.
Possible financial impact
The actual consequences of this cyberattack are for the time being difficult to estimate. Corporate communications on this subject are carried out with all the more precaution.
FedEX, said on Wednesday, that it did not record any customer data theft during the massive cyber attacks against multinationals, including its European subsidiary TNT Express, but does not exclude financial consequences.
“No breach in the data (of TNT customers) has taken place,” said the US logistics group, which also indicates that no other subsidiaries have been affected by this piracy.
Faced with the continued disruption Wednesday of TNT Express operations, FedEx says it has put in place measures to allow a return to normal as soon as possible.
While customers’ data seems to have been preserved, FedEx does not rule out the fact that this piracy is cutting its profits.
“We can not estimate at this time the financial impact of this disruption of services but there would be a material impact,” warns the company.