Friday, 28 July, 2017
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  • Pirated Windows is a risky bet, says security company

Pirated Windows is a risky bet, says security company

Frank Williams | 19 May, 2017, 14:44

Ransomware WannaCry last week ripped through hundreds of thousands of PCs in what is considered the largest ever cyber-extortion scheme. "When I opened the laptop on Tuesday, I was shocked to see the ransomware message on the screen", he said.

Security experts believe the malware that spurred this global attack, called WannaCry, may have initially infected machines by getting people to download it through email.

WannaCry has largely been mitigated, but there are still hackers using the same exploit to infect computers - showing not everyone is able to fix their systems quickly.

WannaCry will ask for USD300 paid in BitCoin, which will go up to USD600 if not paid in time. The first WannaCry attack was reported at 4:07pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Friday, May 12. Power companies should have a backup system that can immediately take over the job and maintain the electricity supply to critical infrastructure services, in case of a security breach.

While you may have already read about WannaCrypt, popularly dubbed as WannaCry, ransomware, and Microsoft's response to the same, here's the story in short before we get to identifying who's at fault.

NEW YORK (AP) - The danger from a global cyberattack that spread to some 150 nations continues to fade, and that's only some of the good news. Windows 10 users can also be affected if they are not patched and updated. In an attempt to block the virus, Microsoft said it has been pushing out special automatic updates to those older systems. However, not everyone has automatic updates enabled and worse yet, some customers are still running Windows XP, meaning a lot of systems were still left vulnerable.

But not everyone is up to the tech curve.

Car drives wrong way in Times Square and hits crowds; 1 dead
He was in custody, and it wasn't clear if he had an attorney yet who could comment on his behalf. After the auto came to a halt, the driver tried to flee before officers took him into custody.

For larger businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees, applying security updates organizationwide can be hard.

"For now, more research is required into older versions of WannaCry", the company wrote.

The SMB is primarily used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports and other communications within a network. WannaCry exploited common techniques employees use to share files via a central server. Do not click on anything through these pop-ups, then safely close the windows.

To put things into perspective, imagine Alexa telling you to pay $100 in order to get your Echo working again and bugging you to do so every few minutes; your smart fridge refusing to cool; smart TV refusing to switch to something you want to watch and so on - until you pay up. It doesn't matter if it is a personal photo or your companies most important excel sheet, if somebody encrypts your data files, it is very hard not to give in and pay the ransom.

Your chances of regaining all of your files are now slim, but we found some pages online that might help you recover your files. Yet, we may never guarantee.

WannaCry, the ransomware cyber attack that has affected computers worldwide, has made its way to India, affecting states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala. This rule applies no matter what you do online.

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