Nuance Communications, one of the companies to have been impacted by the destructive NotPetya attack last year, estimates the financial cost of the attack at over $90 million.
Initially believed to be a ransomware outbreak, NotPetya hit organizations worldwide on June 27, and was found within days to be a destructive wiper instead. Linked to the Russia-linked BlackEnergy/KillDisk malware, NotPetya used a compromised M.E.Doc update server as infection vector.
NotPetya affected major organizations, including Rosneft, AP Moller-Maersk, Merck, FedEx, Mondelez International, Nuance Communications, Reckitt Benckiser, and Saint-Gobain, causing millions in damages to every one of them.
Last year, Nuance estimated that NotPetya impacted its revenue for the third quarter of 2017 by around $15 million, but the total financial losses the attack incurred are of around $100 million, the company now says.
In its latest 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nuance reveals that, for the fiscal year 2017, NotPetya caused losses of around $68.0 million in revenues, and incurred incremental costs of approximately $24.0 million as result of remediation and restoration efforts.
“NotPetya malware affected certain Nuance systems, including systems used by our healthcare customers, primarily for transcription services, as well as systems used by our imaging division to receive and process orders,” Nuance says. The company’s Healthcare segment was hit the most.
The company also notes that, while the direct effects of the attack were remediated during fiscal year 2017, the effects will continue to impact the company for the first quarter of fiscal year 2018 as well. The incident also determined the company to spend more on improving and upgrading information security, during fiscal year 2018 and beyond.
Last month, Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller–Maersk said it had to reinstall software on nearly 50,000 devices following the NotPetya assault. In September 2017, FedEx revealed a negative impact of around $300 million on its profit as result of the attack.
In mid-February 2018, the United Kingdom officially accused the Russian government of being responsible for the NotPetya attack. The next day, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand joined the U.K. and also blamed Russia for the incident.
Related: U.S., Canada, Australia Attribute NotPetya Attack to Russia
Related: Maersk Reinstalled 50,000 Computers After NotPetya Attack