Ransomware hits hundreds of US companies, security firm says

A successful ransomware attack on a single company has spread to at least 200 organisations, according to cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs, making it one of the single largest criminal ransomware sprees in history.

A ransomware attack paralysed the networks of at least 200 US companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident. The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs. He said the criminals targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers. Other researchers agreed with Hammond’s assessment.