A malware, probably generated by a group of Chinese cyber criminals, has sent the internal systems of the Spanish telephone company into a tailspin
Hackers are targeting telephone companies. The Spanish company Telefonica in the day has, in fact, recorded a malware in its internal network. And according to some sources also Vodafone, Iberdrola (Spanish gas and electricity company) and BBVA bank could be affected by the hacker attack.
In the day the internal computers of Telefonica company collapsed and after an immediate research by the company the blame was given to a malware, to be precise a ransomware. For those not familiar with this family of malware, it is a computer virus that restricts access to the device it infects, requiring a ransom to be paid to remove the limitation. The Spanish company at the moment hasn't released any official statement but the news has made the rounds in Spain, and then it has been spread in the rest of the world, thanks to the sentences of some employees of Telefonica itself.
Details about the attack that has hit Telefonica
The first problems for Telefonica started in the morning when technicians discovered a virus that had already infected the company network. The attack forced technicians to suspend Telefonica's internal services for hours, while staff were prevented from taking company devices home and even using the company email address. The ransomware attack, as is often the case, demanded a bitcoin ransom from the Spanish company. Apparently, the virus managed to spread to many Spanish Telefonica offices after the attack made to the one in Madrid. According to initial investigations, the ransomware was designed by Chinese cyber criminals.
What about Vodafone?
According to some sources, Vodafone is one of the phone companies affected by the hacker attack. Even if the affected users would be only the Spanish ones and not the Italian Vodafone users. Vodafone, as well as BBVA and Iberdrola, have denied this information declaring themselves totally extraneous and not involved in the attack. However, it must be said that the Madrid office of the gas and electricity company has reset its internal systems as a precaution.