Petya virus reaches Georgia - Poti sea port becomes target of cyber-attack

According to Rustavi 2 TV, Georgian lawmakers received cyber-attack warning message on 28 June. They were recommended to avoid using e-mail for a while.

Meanwhile, the Georgian Parliament’s press service denied any alleged cyber-attacks, saying there were reports on a possible attack threat, and therefore, incoming mail was being blocked.  

The Georgian Interior Ministry is now inquiring into the current state of the Parliament’s server.

The Georgian sea port at Poti became a target of hackers’ cyber-attacks yesterday. The virus practically paralyzed operations. Emergency measures were taken to ensure uninterrupted cargo transit and turnover. The sea port employees are now processing documents manually.

A hacker attack on the Maersk Group, the Danish company that owns the Poti sea port, has been named as the reason for the computer system failure. IT-systems completely shut down in other ports and terminals, owned by the aforesaid company worldwide.

Accounting at Poti sea port is now also done manually.

The matter concerns the ‘Petya’ malware that targets Microsoft Windows-based systems, demanding  a ransom for regaining access to the computer system. The virus continues to spread worldwide, propagating via infected e-mail attachments.

A global attack of the aforesaid ransomware on Tuesday targeted computer systems of a number of companies worldwide. Ukraine was affected most of all. Computer systems of oil, energy, telecommunications and pharmaceutical companies, as well as those of state agencies, were subjected to the cyber-attacks.  

According to early reports, it initially seemed that the virus belonged to an older family of ransomware, referred to as Petya. However, in the following hours after the outbreak started, it became clear that the superficial resemblance is only skin deep and the matter concerns a new family of malicious software that is functionally different.