Around 1,000 businesses were affected by the cyberattack in the United States, just days before the country celebrates its 245th anniversary of independence on July 4, 2021. The numbers were suggested by researchers on Saturday.

Kaseya, an information technology firm that is also headquartered in Florida’s Miami, said that its “VSA software” was targeted in the cyberattack. However, the software, which is used to monitor and manage computer hardware in a remote manner, managed to mitigate the number of customers impacted, reports from AFP suggested.

Huntress Labs, an organisation specialising in affairs related to cybersecurity, said that data of more than 1,000 companies were encrypted due to software manipulation.

The United Nations Security Council organised a meeting earlier this week to discuss and voice concerns over the increasing number of attacks. The issue was also part of the talking points of US President Joe Biden’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month in Geneva.

The attending members of the UN Security Council meeting agreed to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and address the dangers introduced by such attacks, as per reports from AFP.

A number of US-based installations have been at the targeted end of the cyber attacks, including Colonial oil pipeline and tech-based group SolarWinds.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency responsible for carrying out such investigations, has highlighted the involvement of Russia-based hackers.

A similar attack, which has been given the tag of a ransomware act, was carried out against the Brazilian company JBS, a meat processing organisation that serves majorly in the US, according to reports from AFP.

The FBI denoted that a Russia-linked ransomware gang called REvil was behind the attack. The attack ended up with JBS paying a sum of $11 million in the form of Bitcoin.