Businesses and public institutions in Germany were damaged by a large-scale global wave of cyber-attacks using blackmail software known as ransomware. “According to the current state of knowledge, an average of three digits appears to have been affected in Germany,” the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said in Bonn on Monday.
More specific statements about the extent of the damage are not yet possible, according to the dpa news agency. The Italian cybersecurity authority ACN already warned of the wave of attacks on Sunday and called on organizations to take measures to protect their systems.
Ransomware attack on virtualized servers
The cyber attacks are aimed at users of a special virtualization solution from manufacturer VMWare, so-called ESXi servers, which divide a physical server into several virtual machines. According to the BSI, the attacks mainly targeted France, the US, Germany and Canada. Other countries are also affected.
In ransomware attacks, attackers invade systems, take control, and shut out victims. The data is usually encrypted and only made accessible after payment of a ransom.
According to the BSI, the vulnerability in the VMWare software was closed in February 2021 by updating the program. At the time, the authority also warned against exploiting vulnerabilities in the associated product.
84,000 potentially affected servers
Rüdiger Trost, Head of Cyber Security Solutions at the IT security company WithSecure, explained that there are some 84,000 servers with the affected software installed worldwide, and about 7,000 in Germany, but it is not possible to say which of these are still being vulnerable. . The expert pointed out that the vulnerability had been discovered and fixed some time ago. “Anyone who is still a victim should check their protective measures.”
What is special is that the attack in the current case is not directed against Windows software, but against a solution that runs on the Linux operating system. “Many people mistakenly believe that Linux ransomware doesn’t exist and don’t take appropriate protective measures,” Trost said.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
