Late Night Update: It would seem that the attack was political in nature -- likely aimed at
disrupting a holiday tomorrow, in the Ukraine, celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the independent Ukraine's Constitution -- which in turn, would point to actors inside. . .
you guessed it! -- Russia (who are generally loyal to Putin) -- and are anti Ukraine separatists. Even so, Merck was likely hit (solely as collateral damage, as were some Russian banks)
simply because its (and their) computers were connected to or shared files with affected Ukraine government computers, at some point in the last five days. All that last bit (
italicized) is simply my experienced conjecture. June 28, 2017 --
Updated, new details in a new post, may be found at that link. [
End, updated portion -- g'night.]
More soon. Servers across Europe are reporting attacks as well -- but it is not yet clear whether these are coordinated attacks. It does seem (perhaps ironically, given my initial flippant comment, after the pull quote -- about Russians, since it seems likely to have been Shadow Brokers) likely the initial source infection was in the Ukraine -- and Merck has significant operations there -- so that makes some sense -- as to why Pfizer wasn't affected. I am not aware of any significant Pfizer Ukraine physical or logistical permanent hard asset footprint, on the ground -- but MSD clearly has a large physical facility, with lots of workstations in country.
Merck advises employees to disconnect mobile devices from its network, for the time being.
Per
Philly.com:
. . . .“We confirm our company’s computer network was compromised today as part of global hack,” the statement said. “Other organizations have also been affected. We are investigating the matter and will provide additional information as we learn more. . . .”
An internal Merck communication warned employees that the company was the target of a ransomware attack on its computer systems and advised them to disconnect their computers from the network. . . .
It is a crazy world indeed. I blame. . . Russia. Heh. And 45. [Ed. Note: I wrote that Russia bit as a joke -- at 10:45 AM today, before any of the details were reported in the MSM -- now it seems the truth was. . . even stranger.]
UNRELATED UPDATE: Told 'ya. No
Orange-Influenced Health Care package of any kind,
until 2018 -- or later. What a pile of. . . nonsense.
नमस्ते
No comments:
Post a Comment