Attackers have committed the biggest ransomware attack to be recorded in history. According to international news agencies, nearly one thousand and 500 businesses around the world have been affected by the attack.

Citing to chief executive of American IT form Kaseya, agencies have reported that a software developed by the company was used as a conduit by hackers linked to Russia to launch the attack.

Kaseya is a company which provides software tools to IT outsourcing shops.

The hackers have demanded $70 million to restore all the affected businesses' data, report says. 

Although the disruption has been felt more keenly in Sweden and New Zealand, some German IT company and two big Dutch IT services companies have also become the victims.

In Sweden, hundreds of supermarkets had to close because their cash registers were inoperative. And in New Zealand, where schools and kindergartens were knocked offline.

The hackers are believed to be linked to REvil group. They used the VSA software developed by Kaseya which helps companies remotely monitor their computer systems. The company said it sent a detection tool to nearly 900 customers.

Reports say they are in touch with news agency Reuters. Citing to one of their representatives' statement, without identifying the name, agencies said, 'We are always ready to negotiate'.

The White House on Sunday said it was checking to see whether there was any "national risk" posed by ransomware outbreak.

IT experts say ransomware criminals break into networks and sow malware that cripples networks on activation by scrambling all their data. Victims get a decoder key when they pay up.