Number of victims in major ransomware attack still unclear

A sign that reads: ‘Coop Forum supermarket in Vastberga is closed due to IT disturbances, no prognosis as to when we will open again’, on a closed Coop supermarket store in the suburb of Vastberga, Stockholm, Sweden. Cybersecurity experts said it was too early for Kaseya to know the true impact of Friday’s attack, especially since it was launched by the Russia-linked REvil gang on the eve of the US Fourth of July holiday and many targets may only be discovering it on returning to work Tuesday. — AP

The company whose software was exploited in the biggest ransomware attack on record said Tuesday that it so far it appears that fewer than 1,500 businesses were compromised. But cybersecurity experts suspected the estimate was low and noted that victims are still being identified.

Miami-based Kaseya said in a prepared statement that it believed only about 800 to 1,500 of the estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 mostly small business – customers of companies that use it software to manage IT infrastructure – were affected by the attack.