It seems like we’ve barely drawn breath from the Wannacry ransomware attack, which swept across the world in May, and yet already another insidious form of ransomware is wreaking international havoc. Originally assumed to be a variant of an older form of malware called Petya, the attack has crippled the computer systems at, among others, the advertiser WPP, law firm DLA Piper, food company Mondelez and Danish shipping company Maersk.

Ukraine has been particularly badly affected, with the company’s national bank, Kiev airport, metro system and a state-owned aircraft manufacturer all coming attack. Why Ukraine? According to the Ukrainian Cyber Police, the attack was originally spread via a software update in an accounting program that all organisations working with the Ukrainian government need to use.

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