Companies in Ukraine, Russia come under new cyberattack

MOSCOW — A new strain of malicious software has paralyzed computers at a Ukrainian airport, the Ukrainian capital’s subway and at some independent Russian media.

The Odesa international airport in southern Ukraine, the Kyiv subway and prominent Russian media outlets such as Interfax and Fontanka reported being targeted Tuesday.

The cyberattack appears to be similar to a major attack in June that locked the computers of hospitals, government offices and major multinationals with encryption that demanded a ransom for their release. The software appeared to have originated in Ukraine.

The Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Group-IB said Wednesday the ransomware called BadRabbit also tried to penetrate the computers of major Russian banks but failed. None of the banks has reported any attacks.

The Moscow-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab said it was aware of more than 200 companies in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Germany that were targeted by the ransomware.

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The Odesa airport said its information systems have been affected, although it continues to service flights. The subway in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv said it cannot process online payments or bank card payments.

The operations of Russia’s only privately owned news agency, Interfax, have been paralyzed since Tuesday.

The Russian Central Bank said Wednesday it had recorded BadRabbit’s attack on its systems but they were not compromised.

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This story corrects the name of the cybersecurity firm to Group-IB.

The Associated Press