According to experts, a cyber attack on the IT company Kaseya from the United States could have hit more than a thousand companies.

Kaseya's software was manipulated by blackmail software "to encrypt more than a thousand companies," said the cybersecurity consulting firm Huntress Labs on Saturday.

Among other things, the Swedish supermarket chain Coop was affected, which had to temporarily close 800 branches due to non-functioning checkouts.

The cyber attack occurred before the weekend that the United States celebrates Independence Day.

The IT company Kaseya confirmed the cyberattack on Friday and assured them that the attack had been contained, so that only a "very small percentage" of the customers who used the so-called VSA network from Kaseya were affected 40 worldwide ”.

Biden evades the question of Russian participation

In attacks with ransomware, hackers lock or encrypt the computer systems of their victims in order to extort ransom money (in English ransomware) from the users for the release.

According to its own information, Kaseya is a leading provider of information technology and IT security for small and medium-sized companies.

With VSA software, companies can control all of their computers and printers from a single workstation.

Kaseya's US headquarters are in Florida, and its international headquarters are in Ireland.

US President Joe Biden reacted evasively on Saturday to the question of Russia's possible responsibility.

"The initial consideration was that it wasn't the Russian government, but we're not sure yet," said Biden during a performance in Central Lake, Michigan.

He had commissioned secret services to investigate the incident.

The United States has repeatedly blamed Russia for hacker attacks.

Russia has always rejected this.

Most recently, there were several cyber attacks on US companies.

In May, the colonial oil pipeline in the USA and the US subsidiary of the world's largest meat producer JBS fell victim to cyberattacks with ransomware.

Last year, hackers gained access to the systems of ministries, authorities and companies using software from the American IT company SolarWinds.

According to the New Zealand government's computer emergency team, a hacking group called REvil was behind the cyber attack on Kaseya.

According to the US Federal Police FBI, REvil was also responsible for the cyber attack on JBS.

The UN Security Council held its first meeting this week on cybersecurity and the growing threat to countries' infrastructures from hacking.