Microsoft Says Ukraine, Poland Targetted With Novel Ransomware Attack

A newly discovered hacking group has attacked transportation and logistics companies in Ukraine and Poland with a novel kind of ransomware, Microsoft said in a blog post on Friday.

Microsoft said in a blog Friday that a newly discovered hacking group has attacked transport and logistics companies in Ukraine and Poland with a new type of ransomware.

Microsoft said the attackers targeted a wide variety of systems within an hour on Tuesday, adding that it was unable to link the attacks to any known group so far.

However, the researchers found that the hacks closely mirrored previous attacks by a cyber team linked to the Russian government that disrupted Ukrainian government agencies.

Ukraine has been the target of numerous cyberattacks by Russia since the conflict began in late February,

According to Western security researchers and senior government officials.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, as did cybersecurity agencies in Ukraine or Poland.

Victims of the new ransomware, called "Prestige", overlap with the victims of the new ransomware-

Microsoft said: The shredding cyber attack that involved the "FoxLoad" or "HermeticWiper" malware.

This attack infected hundreds of computers in Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Microsoft said the Prestige ransomware works by encrypting victims' data and leaving a ransom note stating that the data can only be unlocked by purchasing a decryption tool.

In several cases, researchers note that hackers gained administrator control over victims' systems before spreading the ransomware,

Which suggests that they stole their credentials earlier and were waiting for the right moment.

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