- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

What CIA Secret Cyber Weapons Have to Do With Recent Mass Cyber Attacks

© REUTERS / Kacper Pempel/Files A man types on a computer keyboard
A man types on a computer keyboard - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Cyber security experts registered a new Trojan virus in addition to the Petya ransomware that was used to attack computers in a number of Russian and Ukrainian companies on Monday night. In an interview with Radio Sputnik, cyber security expert Andrei Masalovich said that the number of new advanced cyberattacks is likely to increase.

Cyber security - Sputnik International
Russian, Ukrainian Companies Attacked by Petya Ransomware - Group-IB
The anti-virus company Dr.Web fixed cyberattacks using a cryptographic virus on a number of companies in the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The Petya ransomware was used in a large-scale attack on oil, telecommunications and financial companies in both countries, blocking computers and demanding $300 in bitcoins, Group-IB, which specializes in early detection of cyber threats, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Later, the head of Kaspersky Lab's international research team, Costin Raiu, said that the virus had spread all over the world.

Information security expert Andrei Masalovich told Sputnik that attacks with new viruses are likely to occur more and more often in the future.

"Now, unfortunately, we can expect dozens of attacks with such viruses. Since February more than 120 cyber software created by the CIA and the NSA have been released by WikiLeaks. They were created as cyber weapons to attack military and infrastructure in certain countries, and now they fell into hackers' hands. So, we must be ready that hackers will use it again and again," Masalovich said.

According to the expert, many threats, that until recently seemed fantastic, are becoming a real part of our life.

"We woke up on some new "Planet Hollywood." And I don't quite like it, because now there are so many Trojans, which were rarely created before. Many of them fell into the hands of hackers, and so we must be prepared for a situation when it will ‘fever' every week," the expert noted.

At the same time, Masalovich stressed that there is no need to panic. According to him, there is quite efficient protection against new threats.

"We must be able to defend ourselves, there are antivirus software that is capable of protecting us again real threats. Moreover, viruses spread via e-mails with suspicious links, so one shouldn't click on anything. People are capable of protecting themselves, and then cyber experts will join. If they can't immediately find the criminals, then at least they can start gathering information about their attacks' "pattern." I must say that hacker groups conduct their attacks according to a similar pattern. And at some point, when they make a mistake, the entire network can be disclosed," Masalovich concluded.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала