ITALY: Thousands of computer systems worldwide have been exposed due to a ransomware attack on VMware ESXi servers, a few days after the United Kingdom derivatives trading operator faced a similar hack.
Massive cyberattack in Italy
Thousands of computer servers were revealed by Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency to be affected by the ransomware in countries like Italy, France, Finland, Canada, and the United States.
A meeting will be held by the top agency officials on Monday to lay out concerns about the attack and to assess the methods of prevention. The Italian authorities warned the organisations to be cautious and protect their systems.
Cybersecurity Professor Stefano Zanero from the Politecnico di Milano said that this vulnerability has been targeted by hackers in the past two years, which is peculiar as other servers were still unprotected until now.
According to Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency, ACN, this issue was already solved in the past despite the agency discovering that the server was still not fixed, allowing attackers to access the server.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was simultaneously evaluating the effects of the reported occurrences. In order to comprehend the situation and respond right away, CISA is collaborating closely with both public and private agencies. The attack was initially discovered in France.
A spokesperson from VMware said that the company is aware of these incidents and has already taken steps to assess the vulnerability that has been active for the last couple of years.
The customers who are not applying the patch should do it immediately, as reported by a source. Applying these patches would ensure security hygiene and could prevent any upcoming attacks as well.
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