[co-author: Kelly Sweeney]

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)is warning companies in the U.S. about a new ransomware dubbed “Bad Rabbit.” US-CERT stated that it has received multiple reports of infections by Bad Rabbit in countries around the world.

According to security researchers, Bad Rabbit poses as an Adobe update and when the user clicks on the update, ransomware infects the computer, locks it down and requests payment of a ransom to retrieve the files. The ransomware has reportedly targeted Russian media companies and Ukrainian transportation systems. It has also been detected in Japan, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, South Korea, Poland, and the U.S. The virus is similar to the two previous ransomware viruses that attacked companies throughout the world earlier this year, WannaCry and NotPetya.

US-CERT stated in its alert that it “discourages individuals and organizations from paying the ransom, as this does not guarantee that access will be restored. Using unpatched and unsupported software may increase the risk of proliferation of cybersecurity threats, such as ransomware.” It directs users and administrators to review its recent alerts outlining ransomware events and to report ransomware incidents to it to assist others with combatting ransomware attacks.

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