Cybersecurity agencies in Europe are warning of ransomware attacks exploiting a 2-year-old computer bug as Italy experienced widespread internet outages.
The Italian premier's office said Sunday night the attacks
affecting computer systems in the country involved “ransomware already in
circulation" in a product made by cloud technology provider VMware.
A Friday technical bulletin from a French cybersecurity agency
said the attack campaigns target VMware ESXi hypervisors, which are used to
monitor virtual machines.
Palo Alto, California-based VMware fixed the bug back in
February 2021 but the attacks are targeting older, unpatched versions of the
product.
The company said in a statement Sunday that its customers
should take action to apply the patch if they have not already done so.
“Security hygiene is a key component of preventing
ransomware attacks,” it said.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
said Sunday it is “working with our public and private sector partners to
assess the impacts of these reported incidents and providing assistance where
needed.”
The problem attracted particular public attention in Italy
on Sunday because it coincided with a nationwide internet outage affecting
telecommunications operator Telecom Italia, which interfered with streaming the
Spezia v. Napoli soccer match but appeared largely resolved by the time of the
later Derby della Madonnina between Inter Milan and AC Milan. It was unclear
whether the outages were related to the ransomware attacks.
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