Joe Biden orders investigation into ransomware attack that targetted 1,000 businesses

A ransomware attack had left thousands of businesses exposed in the US yesterday and the US President Joe Biden has now launched an investigation into this massive hit.

On Friday, nearly 200 businesses were urged to shut down servers to avoid a ransomware attack after a computing network management tool by Kaseya came under a cyberattack. Initially, the hit was analysed to have affected only 200 businesses but as the day progressed, experts realised that nearly 1,000 businesses had been targeted.

This attack targeted Kaseya, an IT and security management services provider for small and media size businesses.

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"We are in the process of investigating the root cause of the incident with an abundance of caution but we recommend that you immediately shutdown your VSA server until you receive further notice from us," Kaseya’s Reddit message read. "It's critical that you do this immediately because one of the first things the attacker does is shutoff administrative access to the VSA."

While Kaseya analysed the threat to have been limited to "a very small percentage of our customers" who use its VSA software and are "currently estimated at fewer than 40 worldwide", a cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs found out that the attack could have targetted 1,000 businesses.

Considering the growing number of cyberattacks in the country, Joe Biden has ordered a full investigation into the matter and has instructed the experts to thoroughly check if the attack was Russia-originated.

"The initial thinking was it was not the Russian government, but we're not sure yet," Biden said as he ordered a full investigation into the matter. "I'll know better tomorrow, and if it is either with the knowledge of and/or a consequence of Russia, then I told Putin we will respond."