The European Police Office (Europol) said on Wednesday that it has set up an urgent coordination cell and was currently actively monitoring the spread of the ransomware.
It said in a statement that since Tuesday, critical infrastructure and business systems were being targeted with a new wave of ransomware.
The attack of the updated version of Petya has caused infections worldwide and has not yet been stopped.
Europol was in close contact with law enforcement authorities from infected countries and key industry partners to assess the impact of this attack, coordinate actions and join forces.
However, according to Europol, it was not yet possible to say how many victims have been infected.
Rob Wainwright, Europol's Executive Director, said, "There are clear similarities with the WannaCry attack, but also indications of a more sophisticated attack capability, intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities."
Europol provided three pieces of advice in the statement when being affected, which are do not pay, report it to your local police and disconnect the infected device from the internet.
As for someone who has not been affected, it gave five pieces of advice which are keep all apps and operating system up to date, back-up your data, use robust security products to protect your system from all threats, do not use high privileges accounts for daily business, and do not click on attachments or links that accompany suspicious or unexpected emails, even if they seem to be coming from a trusted party such as a bank or an online store.
