Ransomware cyber-attack a wake-up call

In addition the Gibson Research Corporation offers a free “port scanner” here that allows you to check your computer to see “the most common and troublesome Internet ports” that computers have.

“It was essentially an indiscriminate attack across the world”, Europol director Rob Wainwright said.

Global cyber chaos was spreading Monday as companies booted up computers at work following the weekend’s worldwide “ransomware” cyberattack.

There have been calls for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Friday’s major incident, with the Government and NHS chiefs facing questions over their preparedness and the robustness of vital systems. But U.K. hospitals, Chinese universities and global firms like Fedex also reported they had come under assault. This weekend’s virus was particularly virulent, because it could spread to all other computers on a network even if just one user clicked a bad link or attachment.

In recent articles, we spoke about Microsoft issuing a Customer Guidance with advice on how and where to get the appropriate security updates; we also reported that a 22-year-old security researcher from the United Kingdom, who accidentally figured out the “kill switch” to make the ransomware stop spreading to new systems, has warned that the hackers may mount another wave of attacks starting tomorrow.

Now, the tech world is bracing itself for another massive wave of ransomware attacks, possibly the biggest in history, and Microsoft is putting a huge chunk of the blame on the NSA. Copycat attacks could follow.

Larry Magid, a technology journalist and CEO of ConnectSafely.org, said: “There is some speculation that this code was being stored in the NSA labs, potentially as a cyber weapon that the U.S. might have used against its own adversaries”.

Europol’s Wainwright underscored the point Sunday. “In cases of genuine (universal resource locators) URLs, close out the email and go to the organisation’s website directly through browser”, it said.

Experts advise people not to pay, as it would only encourage the attackers, there is no guarantee that they will unblock files, and may result in them gaining access to victims’ bank details.

A mysterious, Russian-linked group called TheShadowBrokers last month claimed to have stolen the hacking tool, which may then have been acquired by another cyber gang and unleashed in Friday’s onslaught.

Microsoft released a patch in March, but computers and networks that hadn’t updated their systems were still at risk.

The NSA first discovered the flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system that let them develop a way to hack or gain access to, computers used by terrorists and enemy states.

But the patches won’t do any good for machines that have already been hit.

“On Monday morning at the start of the new working week we can expect, it’s likely that successful attacks from Friday that haven’t yet become apparent will become apparent”, he told the Press Association. “Remarkably few payments” had so far been made in response to this attack, he added.

Gas stations: State-run media in China reported that some gas stations saw their digital payment systems shut down, forcing customers to bring cash. These institutions had not upgraded to the new Windows system, which has a patch that guards against malware.

A global cyberattack that hit almost 100 countries on Friday forced hospitals in Britain to turn away patients and close emergency rooms, reports MLive.

Russia’s interior ministry said some of its computers had been hit by a “virus attack” and that efforts were underway to destroy it.

“Today, it happened to 10,000 computers”, Eisen said.

Officials urged organisations and companies to immediately update their security software.

While some companies did not report damages to the government, South Korea was yet to see crippling damages, he said.