International

The Code that Crashed the World: The Untold Story of NotPetya, The Most Devastating Cyberattack in History

 
Andy Greenberg

WIRED reporter Andy Greenberg detailed the previously untold story of history’s most devastating, virulent and expensive cyberattack. Unleashed by Russian military hackers in 2017, the release of a nasty piece of automated malware called “NotPetya” was massively destructive as it quickly spread around the globe from servers in Ukraine, crippling pharmaceutical giant Merck and delivery company FedEx and paralyzing the city government of Atlanta, among many others, while resulting in more than $10 billion in damages. With dramatic storytelling flourishes and vivid scenes, Greenberg focused his narrative on the unprecedented wreckage suffered by Copenhagen-based Maersk, the world’s largest shipping conglomerate, which is responsible for nearly 800 seafaring vessels, including container ships carrying tens of millions of tons of cargo. In so doing, Greenberg demonstrated the dangers that cyberwar poses to the infrastructure of the modern world, where the physics of cyberspace are wholly different from those of every other war domain. “Distance is no defense,” he concluded. “Every barbarian is already at every gate.”

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