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Maersk IT systems infected with ransomware

106 points| TonnyGaric | 8 years ago |twitter.com | reply

37 comments

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[+] simonvc|8 years ago|reply
I worked a Maersk for a couple of years. This happened once before, we came in and all Maersk's machines were randomly shutting down.

I heard later a rumour that the reason the AV didn't pick it up was it was a 0-day (stuxnet derived before that was known) and it was literally targeting the SCADA systems on boats.. but that's also the plot of Hackers, so take that with a pinch of salt.

Anyway being the build/devops/tooling person on a project i burned 40 dvd's with eclipse and ubuntu and handed to them to the devs and they booted into Ubuntu and kept developing.

All was going fine until i got a telling off from the Corporate IT security team complaining that our unauthorised Ubuntu machines weren't running AV and so could be introducing viruses into the network.

Total facepalm.

[+] hans0l074|8 years ago|reply
After close to a decade of working in DK, I found their Big IT corporate processes resembling a Deathstar. Looks powerful from a distance, but flaws/inefficiencies can be discerned if you happen to be at close quarters. Also, they advanced ponderously. Which was weird because if you spoke to individual engineers in the teams, they seemed to know how things should be done. I was at Maersk same time as you, and I recall your team (ADLT!) eventually conjuring up some Vagrant machines for us devs, which were, it turned out, a pain to use since the AV kept interfering with the running VM's.
[+] samstave|8 years ago|reply
Ill see if I can find the episode, but did you know that the Stuxnet idea was first televised on an episode of Wonder Woman from the 70s? (Pre-dates hackers)

Here it is... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0750242/

An guess what the computer is called: I.R.A.C.

[+] amrrs|8 years ago|reply
Nevertheless, I doubt the ability of AV softwares catch these unconventional Ransomwares. Anyone feels the security industry (apart from asking the user to update their OS to latest version) is capable of handling this?
[+] smartbit|8 years ago|reply
Essence of Maersk attack in one tweet https://twitter.com/craiu/status/879690795946827776

New Petrwrap/Petya ransomware has a fake Microsoft digital signature appended. Copied from Sysinternals Utils.

I was sitting next to someone who wanted didn't close his laptop immediately when notified, 1 minute later it was too late. Most of my colleagues went home, even if their laptop was not infected (also over de VPN) they are no allowed to start the machine. Some departments ask people to stay home tomorrow too. Those with MacBooks continue working. And externals.

In Rotterdam APM Terminals has shutdown.

[+] dsacco|8 years ago|reply
Hilariously, Twitter requires me to click through an acknowledgement to view that image, because it "may be sensitive material."
[+] samstave|8 years ago|reply
Just curious, could the fake sig have been begotten/created from the supposed "32 TB of source/internal MS code that was 'leaked'" recently?
[+] exhilaration|8 years ago|reply
How is it spreading from machine to machine?
[+] r721|8 years ago|reply
It looks like there is a massive Petya ransomware attack:

>Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France - confirmed reports about #Petya ransomware outbreak. Good morning, America.

https://twitter.com/codelancer/status/879688596852101120

>Petrwrap/Petya ransomware variant with contact [email protected] spreading worldwide, large number of countries affected.

https://twitter.com/craiu/status/879689411419668480

Sample: https://twitter.com/benkow_/status/879692704724250628

Articles:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-cyber...

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qv4gx5/a-ransomwa...

[+] onion2k|8 years ago|reply
A shipping company being attacked by malware worm designed to steal money is literally the plot of the movie Hackers.
[+] samstave|8 years ago|reply
I wonder if the plot of Hackers was derived from the fact that shipping companies typically keep a cash bounty in their on-ship safes to placate pirates should they come aboard, as (AFAIK) it is cheaper(?) to just pay off a pirate than deal with all the other factors?
[+] fest|8 years ago|reply
About a year ago:

One morning a colleague notices that a particular Windows share used by every EE in the multi-national company now contains encrypted files and generic request for ransom.

Highlight of the e-mail thread that followed: "<Name of another coworker whose account was used to encrypt files>, virus again?"

[+] pasta|8 years ago|reply
There are reports of other large companies that currently are being infected.

It almost looks like the virus has been slumbering in systems and today woke up.

[+] nthcolumn|8 years ago|reply
Not just Maersk. Petya going global. Writes to boot sector.
[+] e79|8 years ago|reply
Writes to boot sector? Care to elaborate? Sources?
[+] Hoshea|8 years ago|reply
Anything special about the way this one is spreading or just the usual suspects?
[+] shubb|8 years ago|reply
Mearsk is kind of critical infrastructure - they carry a lot of freight. It's conceivable that if you took out a few major carriers like this for a week, you'd get widespread food shortages.
[+] proyb2|8 years ago|reply
DBSchenker and many logistic companies are still running Windows XP on some legacy PC. I have encountered one PC had ransomware too.
[+] nulagrithom|8 years ago|reply
I'm in the intermodal industry. CEO likes to say that transportation is about 10 years behind technology, and intermodal is 5 years behind that.

We have the security posture of a wet sock.

[+] jaclaz|8 years ago|reply
Any actual connection between this malware and XP?

Last time (WannaCry) after the usual initial "you should update" choir, it seemingly came out that after all it was not as vulnerable as initially thought:

https://blog.kryptoslogic.com/malware/2017/05/29/two-weeks-l...

At least the computers running XP did not contribute to spread the malware in that case.