Lasting Damage and a Search for Clues in Cyberattack
Companies that weren’t using best security practices were wiped out." At Mondelez, which makes products including Oreo cookies, Ritz Crackers
and Trident gum, it took less than 20 minutes for hackers to destroy data on thousands of servers, and to cause the company’s production facilities around the globe — including a Cadbury chocolate factory in the far reaches of Tasmania — to shut down.
Although the security agency has never acknowledged
that its hacking tools were stolen — let alone used in the two major attacks — many security experts worry that there are other agency tools ready to be used by hackers.
In a statement, Mondelez said it believed that it had contained the issue and
that a "critical majority of the affected systems are up and running again." The company said that it expected to incur one-time costs from the attack in its second and third quarters, but it reaffirmed its revenue outlook of "at least 1 percent growth." That was not the case at Reckitt Benckiser, a British maker of consumer goods.
By NICOLE PERLROTHJULY 6, 2017
As investigators continue to gather clues about the cyberattacks
that hit computers around the world last week, some big companies and other organizations are still reckoning with the damage.
Like the WannaCry attacks that spread around the world in May, the attackers behind the episode
last week used hacking tools that exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft software.
