Ukraine Primary Target Of Petya Ransomware Attack, Terrorism By Russia?

There are a few things about the recent ransomware attack that shook the globe yesterday that has been bothering security experts. For one thing, while the spread of the malware affected numerous countries, it would seem that the brunt of the attack has been directed at Ukraine. What’s more, instead of holding data ransom, the malware actually destroyed a considerable amount of them. These factors and more have caused some to believe that the attack was cyber terrorism concocted by Russia.

To be clear, Russia does not bear sole responsibility for cyber-attacks directed at other countries. China and North Korea have been accused of such activities as well. However, as The Verge reports, the Petya ransomware attack hit some of Ukraine’s most essential infrastructure, causing massive damage in its wake. These include banks, airports, and power plants. No one else has more to gain from this attack than Russia.

More to the point, ransomware attacks are meant to generate money for the people responsible. However, even with the admittedly serious education campaign on how to combat extortion by the tech industry, pay out for Petya has been a pittance. So far, the hackers have only received $10,000 and much of this is due to a confusing payment system option that has since been shut down.

By pretending to be a typical ransomware attack, the perpetrators behind the incident might have also wanted to control the media narrative, Ars Technica reports. It worked. Most of the publications and news reports are attributing this attack to the same kind of people behind the WannaCry ransomware.

If this attack was instigated by an enemy nation, they were hidden by the media hubbub. Comae Technologies researcher, Matt Suiche said as much on his blog when he wrote about the attack.

"We believe the ransomware was in fact a lure to control the media narrative, especially after the WannaCry incidents, to attract the attention on some mysterious hacker group rather than a national state attacker like we have seen in the past in cases that involved wipers such as Shamoon."