Petya cyberattack fizzles out as vaccine found, Maersk still on shut down

Tuesday's widespread cyberattack appears to have a solution after tearing across the globe, taking down businesses, government and even the Chernobyl radiation monitoring system.

Whilst May's WannaCry ransomware engulfed an astonishing number of businesses and organizations, Petya has had a significantly more modest impact but still caused outages that have wrecked havoc. 

Chernobyl's nuclear power plant is just one area that has been affected, with the radiation monitoring computer system having to be switched to manual in order to prevent radiation leaks. 

However, various solutions have been floated - one suggests turning your computer off whilst the rebooting screen is shown, which would effectively cancel the encryption process. 

Another Twitter user has found a temporary 'vaccine' by creating a file in the computer that prevents the ransomware program running. 

98% sure that the name is is perfc.dll Create a file in c:\windows called perfc with no extension and #petya #Nopetya won't run! SHARE!! https://t.co/0l14uwb0p9

— Amit Serper (@0xAmit) June 27, 2017

Shipping and logistics giants Maersk was just one major company to be hit, with the attack impacting on the company's infrastructure and IT systems. In an update sent to customers on Tuesday, Maersk commented:

"Following on from our communications yesterday (27th June 2017) regarding the impact of the global cyber attack, Petya, on A.P. Møller-Maersk group, we can confirm that some of our IT and communications infrastructure have been impacted and we have proactively shut down as a security measure."

Maersk also confirmed in the update that "all immediate vessel operations will continue as planned" and that cargo in transit will be offloaded as planned.

The update relayed the information that some APM terminals are affected, but access to ports has not been impacted.

Due to the effects on IT systems, Maersk has said that they are currently "unable to serve new quotes or accept future bookings" whilst their main communication method will be via social media.