Chernobyl n-plant hit by global cyber attack

The automatic radiation monitoring system at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant here has been hit by a cyber attack and monitoring was being carried out manually, a Ukrainian federal agency said.

"Due to the temporary disconnection of the Windows system, the radiation monitoring in the area of the industrial site is being carried out manually," the agency for control of the Chernobyl exclusion zone said in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement also said that all "technological systems of the station operate in the normal mode," but that "in connection with the cyber attack, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant website is not working", CNN reported.

A number of companies and agencies across Europe reported that they were under cyber attack on Tuesday, including Russian oil and gas company Rosneft and Danish shipping firm Maersk.

The source of the attack was not yet clear, the CNN report said.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986 when a reactor exploded.

The disaster led to mass evacuations from the area and the creation of a 19-mile uninhabitable exclusion zone around the site.

--IANS

in/