The White House accused Russia of organizing cyber attacks using the NotPetya virus

WASHINGTON, February 16. / TASS /. The White House spoke on Thursday with the statement that the Russian military allegedly organized a cyber attack in June 2017 using the NotPetya virus, which affected Europe, Asia, the Western Hemisphere and led to the loss of billions of dollars.

"The Russian military launched the most destructive and flawed cyber attack in history in June 2017. The attack, known as NotPetya, quickly spread around the world and led to the loss of billions of dollars across Europe, Asia and the United States," the press- service of the White House. Representatives of the US administration believe that "this was part of the ongoing attempts of the Kremlin to destabilize Ukraine," the attack itself also allegedly "even more clearly demonstrates Russia's involvement in the ongoing conflict."

"It was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyber attack, which will entail international consequences," they concluded in the White House.

On June 27, 2017, a virus blocking access to data attacked dozens of energy, telecommunications and financial companies and organizations in Russia and Ukraine, and then spread around the world. The creators of the virus forced users to transfer money to them in exchange for access to blocked information. Experts of the company Group-IB, specializing in computer security and protection from cyberthreats, called the virus-encryptor Petya the reason for this attack, which prevents the loading of the operating system, blocks computers, for unlocking which you need to transfer to a virtual account of $ 300 in bitcoins. Later, Kaspersky Lab came to the conclusion that the world faced a new virus-extortionist, the company called it NotPetya.

The Kremlin earlier categorically rejected groundless accusations against the Russian Federation in involvement in this cyberattack using the NotPetya virus. The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov called these statements "unsubstantiated, groundless." According to him, "this is nothing more than a continuation of the Russophobic campaign, based on no evidence whatever."

Link: http://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/4964095