May 14, 17 / Gem 22, 01 17:34 UTC

Survival Guide: Ransomware (World's biggest cyberattack sends countries into 'disaster recovery mode')  

As per CNN " The attack is a virus that locks people out of their computer files until they pay a ransom to the hackers.  Experts say the spread of the virus had been stymied by a security  researcher in the U.K. Hackers have issued new versions of the virus  that cyber security organizations are actively trying to counter and  stamp out.  "We will get a decryption tool eventually, but for  the moment, it's still a live threat and we're still in disaster  recovery mode," Rob Wainwright, the head of the European Union's law  enforcement agency Europol, told CNN's Becky Anderson on Sunday. He  added that the agency is still analyzing the virus and has yet to  identify who is responsible for the attack.  You can read this link for further information to get yourself familiarize with the threat and protect yourself against it.

https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/incident/enterprise-survival-guide-ransomware-attacks-36962

May 15, 17 / Gem 23, 01 11:41 UTC

Well, I got into work this morning and my computer works. Darn.

PUK

May 15, 17 / Gem 23, 01 18:27 UTC

Great you have just saved $300 of your hard earned money. :)

May 15, 17 / Gem 23, 01 18:30 UTC

Unfortunately, after reviewing how this malicious code works, normal safe cybering isn't going to prevent it. It doesn't require any user input to infect a machine, it only requires that the software not be patched and it will install itself.

So, everyone patch your computers!

YQZ

May 16, 17 / Gem 24, 01 13:20 UTC

Does anyone really left ports 135 and 445 opened to the wild wild web?!? =:O
Well... it's kind of darwinian process: they deserve to be infected then.

May 19, 17 / Gem 27, 01 16:07 UTC

@seethinglong
I partly agree: nowadays to have (so to "live with") the network is the same, as for our ancestry, to have/live with fire: fire to cook, to heat, to make light, to aid in weapon making... it may not seems, still, but it's matter of survivability.
Even if I agree that one shouldn't be "lock on" by his/her own PC, the ways to avoid it are various.

  1. Doing something other, as you seems suggesting, is not a way, in my humble opinion: it only means you'll fail at the time you'll have to deal with it
  2. Having to deal with digital world, using some kind of systems, leaving them unprotected also, 'cause of your own behavior... directly leads to disaster (and is the essence of the "darwinian process of the survivability of the most adapted")
  3. Learning the "best pratices" of (1) using a "PC" (intended as "any computational machine"), (2) being into a global network, and (3) dealing correctly and respectfully with the global community are the "building blocks" of a nice digital life.

Having a digital life doesn't forbid one to have a social life without PC/machines: it just helps when one need to... cook his/her steak (trying to avoid ending burned). ;-)