Was Petya Ransomware a DELIBERATE Cyberattack on Ukraine? Here’s How It Could Happen To Us
The Petya Ransomware attack hit globally, but one country, in particular, was devastated by it. The Ukrainian infrastructure was brought own by the attack, where the epicenter occurred, and now, experts are suggesting that it may have been deliberate and state-sponsored.
The ostensible purpose of all that damage was to make money — and yet there’s very little money to be found. Most ransomware flies under the radar, quietly collecting payouts from companies eager to get their data back and decrypting systems as payments come in. But Petya seems to have been incapable of decrypting infected machines, and its payout method was bizarrely complex, hinging on a single email address that was shut down almost as soon as the malware made headlines. As of this morning, the Bitcoin wallet associated with the attack had received just $10,000, a relatively meager payout by ransomware standards.
It leads to an uncomfortable question: what if money wasn’t the point? What if the attackers just wanted to cause damage to Ukraine? (source)
This is not the first time Ukraine has been under siege by cyberattack. In fact, the battle has been nearly constant for quite some time.
Ukrainian cybersecurity analysts view Ukraine as the primary target, and the Petya outbreak as just another strike in their ongoing cyberwar with organized and relentless hackers that the Ukrainian government has publicly linked to Russian state actors. “I think this was directed at us,” says Roman Boyarchuk, the head of the Center for Cyber Protection within Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection. “This is definitely not criminal. It is more likely state-sponsored.”
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