Tech: Companies around the world are being hit another massive ransomware attack (WPP)

The ransomware attack looks like WannaCry, which took out organisations around the world.

A massive cyberattack is spreading around the world right now, with companies telling employees to go home as their machines are hit by malicious software.

Here are the companies and organisations impacted so far:

• Advertising giant WPP
• Government departments in Ukraine
• Dutch logistics firm Maersk
• Kiev airport
• Russian oil firm Rosneft
• Mondelez, the confectionary firm which owns Cadbury, has also reported IT issues
• The Madrid office of law firm DLA Piper

Employees at WPP began tweeting pictures of computer screens with the message that their files had been encrypted, and that they would need to hand over $300 (£234) in Bitcoin to decrypt them.

A London-based employee at WPP-owned ad agency Livity reported that every screen in his office was showing the same message.

The message begins: "Oops! Your important files are encrypted."

It then goes on to tell the user that they can't decrypt their files without sending Bitcoin to the hackers. The message gives a Bitcoin wallet address, and asks the user for their own wallet address and key.

Another affected WPP employee tweeted that people were standing around with "literally nothing to do."

WPP confirmed it was under attack in a tweet. Its share price began to fall as news of the attack emerged and was down 1.2% at the time of writing.

The company wrote: "IT systems in several WPP companies have been affected by a suspected cyber attack. We are taking appropriate measures & will update asap."

The cyberattack takes the form of ransomware, malicious software which encrypts your files, then asks for payment in exchange for decrypting them.

An analyst for security firm Kaspersky identified the ransomware as Petrwrap, or Petya. It looks similar to WannaCry, another ransomware attack which impacted the NHS and lots of organisations globally last month.

Russian oil firm Rosneft said it had been hit by a "powerful" cyber attack.

The company wrote on Twitter: "A powerful hacker attack has been carried out on the company servers. We hope that this has nothing to do with the current judicial procedures."

And Ukraine's central bank said in a statement that it had warned banks and other financial institutions about "an external hacker attack", and that some were experiencing "difficulty" in day-to-day operations.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister Pavlo Rozenko also said he was having computer trouble — although he tweeted a screenshot of a disk repair screen, rather than a ransomware demand.

posted by ConnectMe