Russia's interior ministry says computers hit by 'virus attack'

Russia's interior ministry said Friday that some of its computers had been hit by a "virus attack" amid reports of major cyber strikes across the globe.

Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk told Russian news agencies it had "recorded a virus attack on the ministry's personal computers controlled by a Windows operating system."

"The virus has been localised. Technical work is under way to destroy it and renew the means of virus protection," she said.

Volk added that some 1,000 computers—less than one percent of their total number—had been affected, Interfax reported.

An unnamed source told Interfax that the attack had not led to any information leaks.

The ministry's statement comes as an increasing number of cyber strikes are reported around the world, including against dozens of British hospitals.

Russian telecom operator MegaFon said it had also been victim of a cyber attack on Friday that interrupted the work of its call centres.

"We needed to partly turn off whole networks internally so the virus didn't spread," RIA Novosti news agency quoted MegaFon public relations director Pyotr Lidov as saying.

© 2017 AFP