UK Foreign Office Minister blames Russia for NotPetya massive ransomware attack

The United Kingdon’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office formally accuses the Russian cyber army of launching the massive NotPetya ransomware attack.

The UK Government formally accuses the Russian cyber army of launching the massive NotPetya ransomware attack.

The United Kingdon’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office “attributed the NotPetya cyber-attack to the Russian Government.”

According to the UK, NotPetya was used to disrupt Ukrainian “financial, energy and government sector” targets, but it went out of control causing severe damages to companies worldwide.

The shipping giant Maersk chair Jim Hagemann Snabe revealed its company reinstalled 45,000 PCs and 4,000 Servers after NotPetya the attack.

In August 2017 the company announced that it would incur hundreds of millions in U.S. dollar losses due to the ransomware massive attack.

The UK considers the attack an intolerable act and will not accept future similar offensives.

“Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad has today attributed the NotPetya cyber-attack to the Russian Government. The decision to publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity.” reads the official statement issued by the UK Government.

“The attack masqueraded as a criminal enterprise but its purpose was principally to disrupt. Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors. Its indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian business.”

Below the declaration of the Foreign Office Minister for Cyber Security Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon:

“The UK Government judges that the Russian Government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017.

The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesn’t have to be that way. We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

The United Kingdom is identifying, pursuing and responding to malicious cyber activity regardless of where it originates, imposing costs on those who would seek to do us harm. We are committed to strengthening coordinated international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace.”

According to Ukraine’s Secret Service (SBY), Russia orchestrated the NotPetya ransomware attack, going public with their accusations just days after the incident.

NotPetya was followed by the Bad Rabbit ransomware that in late October infected systems in many countries wordlwide, most of in East Europe, such as Ukraine and Russia.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – NotPetya, ransomware)

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