Yearly Archives: 2017

The opening line from an article I read this morning summed up the situation well: “If you haven’t heard about the most recent Ransomware attack, you’re probably living off the grid.”  The WannaCry (also known as WannaCrypt, WanaCryptor, WCry or Wanna Decryptor) program spread rapidly through networks in over 150 countries in a matter of hours, resulting in major disruptions to many systems, some of them critical, such as the UK National Health Service. How does it work? WannaCry is a malicious type of software (malware) called Ransomware.  It typically spreads by unsolicited emails that contain a link or attachment, which, when clicked on, executes or runs the malware on the recipient’s computer.  Exploiting vulnerabilities in unpatched or unsupported versions of Microsoft Windows®, it will then spread to all other devices on the network, infecting each computer and any other accessible network-enabled device (yes, this includes internal and external backup drives connected to an infected machine).  The ransomware then locks and encrypts files on all infected computers, preventing access to them and demanding payment be made via the digital currency, Bitcoin. https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/863980022465515520/photo/1 What should you do? Prevention is always better than cure.  Following these simple steps can greatly reduce the risk of falling prey to this and similar malware attacks: Make sure you are using supported Operating Systems (Windows® XP, 2003 and Vista are no longer officially supported so if you are using Windows® machines you should already have updated all of your computers to newer versions by now); Make sure that your operating systems are up to date with all the critical security patches installed (a patch for this malware was released by Microsoft – make sure you have it installed); Training! 1 in [...]