Updated: Large Global Scale Cyber-Attack

[Osem]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

That's why I use a script blocker. It's the most likely way for a malicious website to gain access to your machine. I also blacklist all those trackers that target advertising.

How about starting a thread showing us how to do stuff like that then matey??

[MalteseFalcon]

One thing that strikes me as odd about the timing of this attack. It seems weird it has only happened in the run up to a General Election, where Labour are facing oblivion. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with that one.

[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

One thing that strikes me as odd about the timing of this attack. It seems weird it has only happened in the run up to a General Election, where Labour are facing oblivion. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with that one.

Nah, Occam's razor usually applies. This was almost certainly some miscreant trying to make a name for themselves and possibly a few bob in the process without thinking about their actions. If whoever did this had anything between their ears they'd target a single organisation and not wage a speculative campaign against all comers. Imagine if a metal thief tried to steal a whole electricity pylon and the cables while the power is still on. Lots of people will notice and nothing will end very well.

Due to the nature of the exploit used it was only a matter of time and the warnings in security circles were kicking about for weeks.

[Osem]

What I want to know is where do the victims of this get $300 worth of Bitcoin with which to unlock (supposedly) their machines?...

[MalteseFalcon]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

Nah, Occam's razor usually applies. This was almost certainly some miscreant trying to make a name for themselves and possibly a few bob in the process without thinking about their actions. If whoever did this had anything between their ears they'd target a single organisation and not wage a speculative campaign against all comers. Imagine if a metal thief tried to steal a whole electricity pylon and the cables while the power is still on. Lots of people will notice and nothing will end very well.

Due to the nature of the exploit used it was only a matter of time and the warnings in security circles were kicking about for weeks.

True, but I still think the timing was just convenient.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

That's why I use a script blocker. It's the most likely way for a malicious website to gain access to your machine. I also blacklist all those trackers that target advertising.

Can you do that with chrome ?

Originally Posted by Damien

As papa smurf said the fault here lies with the Government and the NHS. You simply cannot justify using XP so long after it's release and long past it's generous support window ending. They had more than enough time to to update or commission new software that was dependent on XP. They had more than enough time to update the hardware. Microsoft have been aggressively warning about the end of support for over 5 years.

Aside from the fact it takes a long time to do such things, its also incredibly expensive and complex.
(do you know how many computers the NHS has ?, last estimate I heard was in the hundreds of thousands).

Just imagine the cost of liceces for all of them, plus many would not have the hardware to support newer windows versions, so that needs replacing as well, and then there is huge amount man power needed to change them over.

Its not some 5 minute job.

[Pierre]

Suddenly it's down to cuts, and nothing to do with useless NHS IT managers failing to keep their patches up to date.

You cannot keep up to date with a patch that doesnt exist. MS only released them for XP today.

[Uncle Peter]

The NSA can take some of the damn rap for this for not being able to control their staff and their data.

If you're going to code vulnerabilities into an OS with stolen source code and/or people on the inside at Redmond then at least keep it under lock and key and give the key to someone who can be trusted to look after it.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

The NSA can take some of the damn rap for this for not being able to control their staff and their data.

If you're going to code vulnerabilities into an OS with stolen source code and/or people on the inside at Redmond then at least keep it under lock and key and give the key to someone who can be trusted to look after it.

And Microsoft can carry some of the blame for having a OS full of holes. Blame can be pointed at anyone if the cap fits

Here's a question how many users on here use Internet Explorer instead of one of the other browsers and if you don't use Microsoft internet explorer could it be because it you feel its more vulnerable than the others to attack ?

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Paul M

You cannot keep up to date with a patch that doesnt exist. MS only released them for XP today.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...-were-10426484

Originally Posted by Paul M

Aside from the fact it takes a long time to do such things, its also incredibly expensive and complex.
(do you know how many computers the NHS has ?, last estimate I heard was in the hundreds of thousands).

Just imagine the cost of liceces for all of them, plus many would not have the hardware to support newer windows versions, so that needs replacing as well, and then there is huge amount man power needed to change them over.

Its not some 5 minute job.

I know and as I said they had several years to transition their IT infrastructure. XP's end of life was a long time coming. There was six years from the date XP was removed from the market until it's end of life date. Microsoft were making concerted effort to get them to move on.

Yes there is also a cost involved but that's the price you pay to have a functioning and secure network. There are always ongoing costs and you pay them at least in part to avoid something like this.

And there is no excuse for them not patching Windows 7 and 8.

---------- Post added at 20:56 ---------- Previous post was at 20:56 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...-were-10426484

That is probably referring to Windows 7 and 8.

[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by Sirius

And Microsoft can carry some of the blame for having a OS full of holes. Blame can be pointed at anyone if the cap fits

To be at least a bit fair to Microsoft (which I'm not very often) the NSA were probably the ones who put it there or at least found it via nicking source code

Originally Posted by Damien

And there is no excuse for them not patching Windows 7 and 8.

Windows 7, yes.
The only patch for Windows 8 was for 8.1, the patch for 8(.0) was only released with the XP patch.

Originally Posted by Damien

That is probably referring to Windows 7 and 8.

Typical muddled reporting by a newspaper.
They could not provide a patch for XP, since none existed.

--------

On another note, even a patch existing does not mean it will work.
I checked the windows update logs on all my W7 PC's, and the patch for this this (which was released in March) is marked as "Failed" on one of them - which presumably means it hasnt installed. I wonder how many others failed.