Companies, government offices from Ukraine to England among those affected

Hackers have caused widespread disruption across Europe, hitting Ukraine especially hard.

Company and government officials reported serious intrusions at the Ukrainian power grid, banks and government offices. Russia’s Rosneft oil company also reported falling victim to hacking, as did Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk and French construction materials company Saint Gobain. British advertising giant WPP said it too was among the victims of the cyberattack.

“We are talking about a cyberattack,” said Anders Rosendahl, a spokesman for the Copenhagen-based A.P. Moller-Maersk group said. “It has affected all branches of our business, at home and abroad.”

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Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko on Tuesday posted a picture of a darkened computer screen to Twitter, saying that the computer system at the government’s headquarters has been shut down. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said the attack was “unprecedented” but “vital systems haven’t been affected”.

Rosneft released a statement, saying: “The hacking attack could have led to serious consequences but neither the oil production nor the processing has been affected thanks to the fact that the company has switched to a reserve control system.”

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Modified ransomware

Saint Gobain said it had isolated its computer systems in order to protect data.

“Along with other big companies, St Gobain has been the victim of a cyberattack. As a security measure and in order to protect our data, we have isolated our computer systems,” said a spokesman.

Information technology experts identified the virus as “Petrwrap”, a modified version of the Petya ransomware that hit last year and demanded money from victims in exchange for the return of their data.