Japanese Hitachi Company Among Massive Cyberattack Victims - Reports

The server of the Japanese Hitachi electronics company was affected Monday by a cyberattack which might have been perpetrated with the use of the same virus that infected computers around the globe this weekend, local media reported, citing the company’s officials.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – According to the NHK broadcaster, the cyberattack made it impossible for the employees to work with email. Measures are currently being taken to fix the system, the NHK added.

As of Monday, more than 2,000 cases of malware infection by a ransomware program were recorded in Japan since Saturday, an organization specializing on information security issues said.

According to the Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPСERT/CC), computers belonging to some 600 companies and individuals were affected by the cyberattack.

The virus, called WanaCrypt0r 2.0., also hit mail servers of Hitachi multinational conglomerate company and JR East Japan railway company.

Last Friday, the Kaspersky Lab IT company registered about 45,000 ransomware attacks in 74 countries worldwide, with the largest number of targets in Russia. The company reported that the attack was carried out with the use of ransomware dubbed WannaCry. The malicious software has reportedly infected computers in up to a hundred countries and tried to extort users' money.

On Sunday, Europol Executive Director Rob Wainwright said that the global cyberattack may continue on Monday. According to Wainwright, the attack affected 200,000 users in 150 countries, including businesses and large corporations.