A new and highly virulent outbreak of malicious data-scrambling software appears to be causing mass disruption across the world, hitting companies and governments in Europe especially hard. The attack was confirmed to have spread beyond Europe when U.S. drugmaker Merck, based in New Jersey, said its systems had also been compromised. "Data breaches and cyber hacks are one of the biggest risks facing business worldwide," said Michelle Crorie, a partner at law firm Clyde & Co. who specializes in cybersecurity issues. "The WannaCry attack and now Petya clearly demonstrate that hackers do not discriminate which type of business they are targeting." This particular variant of ransomware leaves a message with a contact email; several messages sent to the address were not immediately returned.

Source: India Today June 27, 2017 17:15 UTC