Wednesday, December 15, 2021
On June 27, 2017, the NotPetya malware tore through global companies in hours, causing more than ten billion dollars in damage in the costliest cyberattack yet.
On this day in 2017, malware that came to be called NotPetya began spreading from Ukraine and, within hours, had jumped across the world. It looked like ransomware but was really built to destroy, wiping the computers it touched beyond recovery. It became the costliest cyberattack in history, with damage estimated above ten billion dollars.
What made it frightening was the spread. Global shipping companies, drug makers, and food producers were knocked offline not because they were targets but because they were connected. Ports stopped, deliveries stalled, and businesses fell back to pen and paper for weeks while they rebuilt from scratch.
The lesson is that a digital attack does not stay digital. When the systems behind shipping and supply seize up, shelves feel it too, so treating a major man made disaster online as a possible supply disruption, and keeping offline backups and a household reserve, is ordinary prudence.
