WannaCry: The global attack ransomware that works like a worm and caused chaos is coming back, experts warn.
The spread of the WannaCrypt ransomware lightning attack (WannaCry) was felt globally last week, causing problems for thousands of private and public sector organizations in dozens of countries on Friday, and forcing hospitals in the UK to resort to pen and paper. The ransomware also caused problems in Germany, Russia, the US and Spain.
After the impact of the first ransomware attack was mitigated, the attackers released a second variant of .WannaCry.
So now, because the attack began on Friday evening, there is concern that more computers worldwide may have been infected over the weekend – meaning companies will face problems from Monday morning when employees return to work.
Here we should mention that the main reason for the spread of any ransomware is the human factor. So imagine what will happen to it WannaCry 2, and with the mistakes that can be made by millions of workers who return to their jobs.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre, the agency tasked with securing the UK's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, called what was happening a "globally coordinated ransomware attack" and that there have been no other attacks of this kind.
"It is important to understand that the way these attacks work is to infect computers and networks and go undetected, so they can spread within networks," the agency warned.
"This means that as a new working week begins, it is likely, in the UK and elsewhere, that more cases of ransomware infection will be found, potentially on a significant scale."
The NCSC said there have been attempts to attack organizations beyond the NHS and that it is "absolutely imperative" that any organization that believes it may be affected follows and implements security regulations with proper guidance.
Companies should ensure that they have received all software updates and are using appropriate anti-virus software services. The agency also said that companies should keep the data that matters safe (and of course it means backups) because "you shouldn't have to pay a ransom if you have your data somewhere else."
Home users and small businesses should use Windows Update, ensure their anti-virus software is up-to-date, and back up their data.
Microsoft stated that the exploit code used by WannaCrypt (WannaCry) is designed to work only against Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 or even older systems such as Windows XP.
This exploit, codenamed “EternalBlue', had been made available on the Internet by so-called Shadow brokers who hijacked the tools from the NSA.
A fix for the vulnerability was released by Microsoft in March, but many organizations and individuals failed to update their systems.
If you want to protect your system update immediately..
You can download updates for older systems (Windows XP, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003) from here. Anyone using a different (newer) system still supported by Microsoft, just update your PC via Windows Update.
