Over 200 US Companies Hit by Ransomware Attacks... Russia's 'REvil' Suspected Behind

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Over 200 American companies were paralyzed after falling victim to a ransomware attack. Some have pointed to a hacking group linked to Russia as the culprit, and it is expected that the number of affected cases will increase.

According to AP News and others on the 3rd, the computer networks of 200 U.S. companies were paralyzed due to a ransomware attack. Ransomware is a program that locks systems or encrypts data, making devices unusable. The cloud service provider Kaseya, which was attacked, has customers worldwide, resulting in significant damage.

John Hammond, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs, estimated that the hacking group REvil, linked to Russia, is behind this attack. It is explained that REvil distributed ransomware through Kaseya as a conduit.

Kaseya, which suffered major damage, announced on its homepage that only a small portion of its customers were affected and advised the affected companies to immediately shut down their servers.

A similar incident occurred in May. Colonial Pipeline, an oil pipeline company, was hit by a ransomware attack and failed to properly supply fuel to the southeastern region. In response, U.S. President Joe Biden requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to prevent cyberattacks against the United States during their summit.

Meanwhile, following this ransomware incident, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a statement saying it is closely monitoring the hacking situation and announced it will cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to collect more cases of damage.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.