On May 12, 2017, we witnessed new ransomware spread across the world with incredible speed and success, bringing businesses to their knees and home users learning for the first time about ransomware and why computer backups are so important.
With over 123,000 computers infected, experts believe the “WannaCrypt” attacks have stopped after researchers registered a domain that the software checks before encrypting. However, nothing is stopping someone from revising the software to not require that check and releasing it into the wild. In other words, do not expect the infections to stop.
To battle the malicious software, Microsoft took the highly unusual step of issuing updates for versions of Windows that have reached their end of life and otherwise are not supported (e.g., Windows XP, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2003). WannaCrypt did not even try to target Windows 10 machines, but that does not mean Windows 10 machines cannot be affected and encrypted by the ransomeware. The blog describing Microsoft’s efforts can be found here and is worth reading. Although your business may normally take a wait and see approach to software updates to avoid conflicts with other programs, this is a situation you should fast track that process.
If there is any silver lining here, it is that it may lead to more organizations to focus harder on computer security and efforts to battle malicious attacks similar to WannaCrypt. Having seen first hand from clients the panic and feeling of helplessness caused by WannaCrypt in mere hours, it seems likely that companies are starting to better understand the risk, loss of productivity and costs that can be associated with a ransomware attack.
Below is a screenshot of the WannaCrypt software on an infected machine. (Note the financial aid offer in the last line of the “Can I Recover My Files?” paragraph. The bad guys must have a public relations firm!)
[View source.]
