Vaccine found against 'Petya' cyber attack

Security researchers have discovered a "vaccine" for the huge cyber attack known as 'Petya', that hit organisations across the world on Tuesday.

Organisations throughout Europe and the US were crippled the day before by 'Petya', a ransomware attack; it was the second biggest attack in the last two months, blocking access to computers or their data unless a demand for $300 to release it was met.

Experts remained unsure about the attack's origins or its real purpose. Given that the ransom amount of $300 was quite small, speculation was that the attack may be a "front for causing wider disruption or making a political statement" according to the BBC.

Luckily, security researchers had found that the creation of a single file could stop the attack from infecting a machine.

However, they had not been able to find a so-called 'kill switch' that would prevent the crippling ransomware from spreading to other vulnerable computers.

Among the victims of the attack were the Ukrainian central bank, Russian oil giant Rosneft, British advertising firm WPP and US law firm DLA Piper.