Petya Ransomware: What It Is, How to Avoid It, What to Do if Infected

A new ransomware dubbed "Petya" started spreading across Europe on Tuesday, affecting businesses and governments that weren't sufficiently protected. But its reach has not been restricted to just Europe, as India has suffered at the hands of Petya ransomware. This is the second public ransomware attack in as many months, following up on the WannaCry ransomware that affected 230,000 in over 150 countries.
The ransomware's name comes from the fact that it behaves similar to a ransomware from last year by the same name, which encrypted a hard drive's index page and overwrote the booting instructions. Some security researchers - including those at Kaspersky - have noted that it's not a variant of last year's Petya ransomware, but rather one that just behaves like it. That's why you might also see people calling it "NotPetya" or "Nyetya".
Here's what you need to know about it.