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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday June 28 2017, @11:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-just-for-breakfast-anymore dept.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-attack-idUSKBN19I1TD

A ransomware attack hit computers across the world on Tuesday, taking out servers at Russia's biggest oil company, disrupting operations at Ukrainian banks, and shutting down computers at multinational shipping and advertising firms.

Cyber security experts said those behind the attack appeared to have exploited the same type of hacking tool used in the WannaCry ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in May before a British researcher created a kill-switch.

"It's like WannaCry all over again," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with Helsinki-based cyber security firm F-Secure.

He said he expected the outbreak to spread in the Americas as workers turned on vulnerable machines, allowing the virus to attack. "This could hit the U.S.A. pretty bad," he said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was monitoring reports of cyber attacks around the world and coordinating with other countries.

The first reports of organizations being hit emerged from Russia and Ukraine, but the impact quickly spread westwards to computers in Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Britain.

Many recent outages/attacks have a pattern and a UK power grid outage is anticipated.

Previous WannaCrypt coverage.


Original Submission #1   Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:12PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:12PM (#532414)

    According to Kaspersky [securelist.com] this virus only needs to get a toehold in a single computer on the network. It can then spread to any computers that have the MS17-010 patch. So unless you've patched everything you're still vulnerable.

  • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:19PM (3 children)

    by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:19PM (#532416)

    It can then spread to any computers that have the MS17-010 patch.

    I don't see that in your linked article. As far as I can tell, a fully patched Windows 10 machine is safe.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:22PM (#532421)

      From the linked article:

      IMPORTANT: A single infected system on the network possessing administrative credentials is capable of spreading this infection to all the other computers through WMI or PSEXEC.

    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday June 28 2017, @06:59PM (1 child)

      by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @06:59PM (#532578) Journal

      The linked article says:

      It’s crucial to apply the MS17-010 bulletin immediately.

      It's evident from the last sentence in the grandparent post that the poster meant to write "any computers that don't have the MS17-010 patch."

      • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday June 28 2017, @08:15PM

        by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @08:15PM (#532606)

        Yes, I think that's right.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:58PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @01:58PM (#532435)

    Your buisness machines should *really* be properly configured and not execute arbitrary shit. Windows can be set up to only execute code and scripts that are manually whitelisted, but nobody seems to do that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @06:05PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @06:05PM (#532547)

      Yes, lets blame the victims. They're all idiots who shouldn't bet let near a computer. Microsoft and the Windows team have done an awesome job.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Wednesday June 28 2017, @07:26PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @07:26PM (#532586)

        No.
        We all know that Windows "security" is lacking (to put it in the mildest of terms).
        So if you have to run Windows, you should go through every possible extra step to protect yourself from the known issues and the likely but unknown ones.

        Oblig car analogy: It's like wearing a fireproof suit in a Pinto, because somehow you got stuck having to take a Pinto to work.