UPDATE 4: Rosneft says under strong hacker attack, turns to govt for help

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MOSCOW, Jun 27 (PRIME) -- Servers of Russian oil major Rosneft, now in a 170.6 billion ruble suit against multi-industry holding Sistema, have been hit by a strong hacker assault, and the company had asked the law enforcement entities for help, Rosneft said on Tuesday on its Twitter page.

“A strong hacker attack has targeted the company’s servers. We hope it has nothing to do with the ongoing court procedures. The company turned to law enforcement authorities because of the hacker attack,” Rosneft said.

Rosneft switched to a reserve system of the industrial process control system without suspending oil production.

“The hacker attack could have resulted in grave consequences, however, thanks to switching to a reserve system neither production nor preparation of oil has been stopped,” the company said on its Twitter page.

Rosneft and Bashneft Web sites were unavailable as of 4 p.m. Moscow time.

Group-IB, which prevents and investigates high-tech crimes and online fraud, said Rosneft and Bashneft fell victim of ransomware Petya, used by hackers against Russian and Ukrainian companies working on the oil, telecom, and financial industries by blocking computers and extorting U.S. $300 in bitcoins.

“The attack took place at about 2 p.m. (Moscow time). Judging by photos, it’s cryptolocker Petya. The means of expansion in a local network is similar to virus WannaCry,” a spokesperson for Group-IB said.

A massive attack with ransomware WannaCry hit over 200,000 users in 150 countries in May.

Costin Raiu, head of the international research team of antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab, said ransomware Petya has spread throughout the globe.

“Petrwrap/Petya ransomware variant with contact wowsmith123456@posteo.net is spreading worldwide, a large number of countries affected…The fast-spreading Petrwrap/Petya ransomware sample we have was compiled on June 18, 2017 according to its PE timestamp,” Raiu said on his Twitter page.

U.K.-based mining giant Evraz, which mainly operates in Russia, was also the target of the hacker attack. “Evraz’ information system was exposed to a hacker attack. The key producing facilities continue their work, there is no threat to the safety of the company or its employees,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for nuclear plant operator Rosenergoatom said that “all Russian nuclear power plants are working normally. The hacker attack has not affected them.”

Sberbank, the country’s biggest bank, operates regularly, as its spokesperson said.

(59.0014 rubles – U.S. $1)

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