Petya ransomware goes global -- what's happening and how to protect yourself

The ransomware attack we reported yesterday may have begun in the Ukraine, but it spread rapidly across Europe and has now hit companies in Australia and the US including pharmacy giant Merck. A variant of the Petya ransomware now being dubbed 'NotPetya', it spreads initially by phishing emails and once on a system the ransomware demands $300 in bitcoin. When it's installed on one system behind a firewall it's able to spread rapidly to others on the same network. The attack uses the same delivery method as last month's WannaCry attack, an exploit known as 'EternalBlue' within the Microsoft Server… [Continue Reading]