Factory, shipping, law firms under cyber attack in Australia

A chocolate factory, a shipping company and a law firm are among the Australian businesses hit by a global wave of cyber attack, the Australian media reported Wednesday.

The attacks were similar to the one that affected 200,000 users in 150 countries in May, Efe news reported.

The Cadbury chocolate factory, located on the Tasmania island, halted production on Tuesday night after being struck by a ransomware attack, John Short, representative of one of Australia'a trade unions, told Channel 9 News.

Short said production would resume after the severity of the attack was determined.

International courier TNT and DLA Piper law firm, both with offices in Australia, said that some of their computers have been affected by the global cyber attack.

"Like many other companies and institutions around the world, we are experiencing interference with some of our systems within the TNT network," the shipping firm said in a statement.

DLA Piper issued a statement saying it has taken down its systems as a precautionary measure owing to "a serious global cyber incident".

The computer virus named Petya was similar to the WannaCry virus, which struck in May, as it locks up the infected computers and demands a ransom payment in Bitcoins.

The Australian federal government has asked companies and affected users to contact local authorities and not pay the ransom.

--IANS

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