About 200 US businesses have been hit by a “colossal” ransomware attack, according to a cyber-security firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Huntress Labs said the hack targeted Florida-based IT company Kaseya before spreading through corporate networks that use its software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaseya said in a statement on its own website that it was investigating a “potential attack”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Huntress Labs said it believed the Russia-linked REvil ransomware gang was responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, a federal agency, said in a statement that it was taking action to address the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cyber-breach emerged on Friday afternoon as companies across the US were clocking off for the long Independence Day weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaseya said one of its applications that runs corporate servers, desktop computers and network devices might have been compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said it was urging customers that use its VSA tool to immediately shut down their servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaseya said in its statement that a “small number” of companies had been affected, though Huntress Labs said the number is already about 200 and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not clear what specific companies have been affected – a Kaseya representative contacted by the BBC declined to give details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaseya’s website says it has a presence in over 10 countries and more than 10,000 customers.”This is a colossal and devastating supply chain attack,” Huntress Labs’ senior security researcher John Hammond said in an email to Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a summit in Geneva last month, US President Joe Biden said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin he had a responsibility to rein in such cyber-attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Biden said he gave Mr Putin a list of 16 critical infrastructure sectors, from energy to water, that should not be subject of hacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
REvil – also known as Sodinokibi – is one of the most prolific and profitable cyber-criminal groups in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gang was blamed by the FBI for a hack in May that paralysed operations at JBS – the world’s largest meat supplier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FBI accuses Russia-linked hackers of attack on JBS
\nThe ransomware surge ruining lives
\nShould paying hacker ransoms be banned?
\nThe group sometimes threatens to post stolen documents on its website – known as the “Happy Blog” – if victims don’t comply with its demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
REvil was also linked to a co-ordinated attack on nearly two dozen local governments in Texas in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 200 US businesses have been hit by a “colossal” ransomware attack, according to a cyber-security firm. Huntress Labs said the hack targeted Florida-based IT company Kaseya before spreading through corporate networks that use its software. Kaseya said in a statement on its own website that it was investigating a “potential attack”. Huntress Labs said … Continue reading “US companies hit by ‘colossal’ cyber-attack”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3376,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3375\/revisions\/3376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}