Image: Kaspersky
A new ransomware attack is now spreading across Europe in an outbreak that carries echoes of the WannaCry and Petya attacks that hit scores of PCs earlier in 2017. Called Bad Rabbit, the malware appears to have most strongly impacted Russian and Ukrainian organizations thus far, though similar attacks have been spotted in Turkey and Germany as well.
According to Kaspersky researchers, Bad Rabbit has already infected a number of Russian media outlets, including the Interfax news agency and Fontanka.ru. Odessa International Airport has also reported a cyberattack, but it's not immediately clear whether the two are related. According to ZDNet, the Kyiv Metro's payment systems also appear to be impacted.
Kaspersky explains that the ransomware appears to be targeting corporate networks in a manner similar to the Petya ransomware, but it isn't clear at this point whether Bad Rabbit is related to Petya. Meanwhile, ESET researchers claim to have identified the malware as Diskcoder.D, which is a variant of Petya.
Image: ESET
Once infected, victims of the Bad Rabbit attack are directed to a darknet website with a note that demands 0.05 bitcoin (currently around $280) as ransom. The website also features a timer counting down to when the price will increase. It's not yet clear, Kaspersky says, whether it's possible to recover the files encrypted by Bad Rabbit. However, Kaspersky says you can protect yourself by blocking execution of files "c: \ windows \ infpub.dat" and "C: \ Windows \ cscc.dat." If you are infected, experts advise against paying the ransom.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Xbox FY21 Q2 revenue surges 51% with Xbox Series X, Series S launch
Microsoft enters the next console generation strong with Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, pushing steady growth across its hardware, software, and subscriptions in Q2 financials.

Microsoft brings in a record-breaking $43.1 billion in rev for FY21 Q2
Microsoft had another massive quarter pulling in $43.1 billion in revenue. Driven by strong growth in commercial, cloud, the company sees a resurgence due to "the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry." Xbox, Surface, and Windows all did well, too, due to strong holiday sales. Full details ...

Microsoft Surface FY21 Q2 revenue hits over $2 billion for the first time
Microsoft's FYQ2 2021 revenue saw a more considerable uptick, with Surface devices up slightly year over year. For the first time, Microsoft's growing Surface lineup peaked over two billion due to an aggressive push for sales during the holiday season.

Going all-in on crypto mining? These are the best GPUs for you.
If you're looking for the right graphics card to get into mining for cryptocurrencies, you need one of these. We've rounded up the absolute best graphics cards to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.