At least one Norwegian company was among those under cyber attack on Tuesday, along with targets in Europe and the US, by online villains who have encrypted computer files and demanded ransom to decrypt them. National agencies, large shipping companies and banks were among the targets.
“We see a spread of the ransomware virus, which spread quite broadly during the afternoon (on Tuesday),” Mona Strøm Arnøy of Norway’s national security authority NSM (Nasjonal Sikkerhetsmyndighet) told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). She said the attack was similar to the “WannaCry” attack in May.
NSM didn’t want to identify the company hit hardest in Norway, but said it was an international firm with an office in Norway.
“Otherwise it looks fairly calm, with no critical infrastructure affected,” Arnøy said. She strongly urged all computer users to update all software and to be very careful about clicking on links and opening attachments.
Large foreign companies including Russian oil producer Rosneft, Danish shipping giant Mærsk and WPP of the UK, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, confirmed that several of their computer systems were attacked. Messages showing up on computer screens demanded USD 300 to be paid in bitcoins for the files to be decrypted.
newsinenglish.no staff
