RIGA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Several Latvian retail companies and a private individual have suffered in the latest global cyber attack that has been striking computer servers across the world since Tuesday, the Latvian IT security incident response institution Cert.lv said on Wednesday.
In Latvia, encrypting malware Petya has hit one private person and three retail chains of medium size, said Cert.lv deputy head Varis Teivans.
"It takes just one victim in a company, and from this one victim's computer the virus spreads throughout the company's computer network. This is exactly what happened in these three Latvian companies. We have also discovered a correlation -- all three companies have branches in Ukraine," said Teivans.
The business of one of the affected retailers was disrupted so seriously that all its operations were conducted via smartphones on Wednesday.
Although at the beginning it seemed that he hackers' main goal was to extort as much money as possible, the relatively small sums they are demanding from their victims and the poorly designed payment system suggest that the extortion attempts are just a cover-up for some other intentions, experts at Cert.lv said.
"This might be score-settling between rivals. These might be some political goals. This case does not look like spying because in the event of spying, the attacker tries to remain invisible and gather information, and not disrupt the work of a company or an institution in such a direct way," said Cert.lv head Baiba Kaskina.
On Tuesday, a massive ransomware cyber attack hit power grids, airports, banks and many companies across Europe, notably in Ukraine and Russia. Enditem
