NPR

'Petya' Is Latest Wave In Growing Cascade Of Cyberattacks

The massive cyberattack has ravaged computers around the world, even knocking out radiation monitoring computers and compromising the U.S. drug company Merck.
A laptop displays a message after being infected by a ransomware as part of a worldwide cyberattack on June 27, 2017 in Geldrop, Netherlands. (Rob Engelaar/AFP/Getty Images)

The massive cyberattack nicknamed Petya has ravaged computers around the world, even knocking out radiation monitoring computers and compromising the U.S. drug company Merck. Like the WannaCry attack in May, it was ransomware that demanded a few hundred dollars in bitcoin to unlock frozen data.

To security specialist Golan Ben-Oni, it also had echoes of a lesser-known attack in April on his company, the New Jersey-based conglomerate IDT Corporation.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min read
Police Enter UCLA Anti-war Encampment; Arizona Repeals Civil War-era Abortion Ban
Law enforcement officers have moved into a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. Arizona lawmakers voted to repeal a Civil War-era abortion ban.
NPR3 min readAmerican Government
A Michigan Grassroots Effort Is Raising Reparations, While The Government Lags
The year 2020 was a turning point for Lansing, Michigan resident Willye Bryan. Between the racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd and the health disparities that hit the African American community during the pandemic, she knew it was t
NPR4 min read
A Poet Searches For Answers About The Short Life Of A Writer In 'Traces Of Enayat'
Poet Iman Mersal's book is a memoir of her search for knowledge about the writer Enayat al-Zayyat; it's a slow, idiosyncratic journey through a layered, changing Cairo — and through her own mind.

Related Books & Audiobooks