Malware

UK Hospitals Recover from Virus

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Around 24 hours after being hit by the big malware attack that affected 100 countries, 97% of UK hospitals were back to normal.

There is talk that the computers were breached through a vulnerability in older Microsoft systems which was long ago identified by the NSA and which the NSA included it in its list of cyber weapons. The NSA information was leaked earlier this year.

According to the FBI, ransomware attacks are up 300% since last year.

Most computer infections have the same MO as always: a user clicks on an attachment in an email that installs the malware, or that “patches” aren’t updated on systems when vulnerabilities come to light.

One way to protect computer information: Regularly back it up on an external drive or the cloud — somewhere secure.

Microsoft Blaming NSA for WannaCry Malware Pandemic

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Microsoft President Brad Smith complained that various governments “stockpile vulnerabilities.”

In other words, governments and agencies find weaknesses in technology and then keep that information to themselves in case they want to use it.

Smith said the current WannaCry malware event was a very rare one, combining a piece of very sophisticated software (to do the exploit) with a simpler piece (to do the ransom), conducted by a criminal organization.

To accusations Microsoft didn’t do enough to alert people about the danger, Smith said, “Microsoft has the first responsibility.” He called it a “wake-up call for us,” and that “we should all learn from this.”

In response to questions about whether the NSA told Microsoft they had a tool that exploited the vulnerability, Smith said, “I don’t want to go into the specifics about how we learned this particular problem, or by whom or when. It is a public record that we provided a patch in March. There wasn’t a public statement until April.

“But what I think is also important: We need the global community to come together.”

Huge Malware Attack Affects 70 Countries

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Most prominent among the victims: The UK’s National Health Service. Dozens of hospitals and medical centers had to be closed. Treatment was postponed, ambulances diverted. Appointments couldn’t be made because it was too dangerous. Medical workers had no access to important information.

However, some security firms reported that most of the affected computers were in Russia.

It has been reported that the hackers may have used a tool that was a NSA secret before it was leaked to the public earlier this year.