REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Ransomware halts UK hospitals and infects a hundred nations. And now Atlanta. Thanks NSA

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, March 24, 2018 16:47
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Friday, May 12, 2017 11:53 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Massive ransomware infection hits computers in 99 countries
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39901382

NHS ransomware cyber attack spreads worldwide
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/12/nhs-hit-major-cyber-attack-
hackers-demanding-ransom
/

Hackers Hit Dozens of Countries Exploiting Stolen N.S.A. Tool
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/world/europe/uk-national-health-ser
vice-cyberattack.html?_r=0


Ransomware based on leaked NSA tools spreads to dozens of countries
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/12/ransomware-based-on-leaked-nsa-tools
-spreads-to-dozens-of-countries
/

Global ransomware attack shows why Apple refused to hack terrorist's iPhone
Quote:

Cybersecurity researchers said a malicious program that disabled computers at Britain's National Health Service, Russia's Interior Ministry and companies and homes across dozens of countries Friday originated with the National Security Agency.

Earlier this year, a hacking group calling itself Shadow Brokers published online what it described as stolen NSA documents. They were filled with information that hacking experts said could be used to secretly take over and pluck data from laptops, smartphones and even smart TVs.

Friday’s attack appeared to target computers running Microsoft Windows and took advantage of a flaw in the operating system. Microsoft released a patch for the bug in March, but users who didn’t update their systems remained susceptible to having their files locked up until they made a ransom payment to attackers.
Law enforcement agencies may want a way into highly secure gadgets and apps to further their investigations — such as when the FBI pressed Apple last year to hack into the iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino terror attack. But the companies have repeatedly pointed out that there’s no safe way to build an entry point just for trusted government organizations.

Though the NSA hasn’t confirmed it was hacked, the purported leak of its tools shows that even supposedly secret vulnerabilities can get into the wrong hands.

“It goes back to the mafia expression,” said John Bambenek, threat research manager at Fidelis Cybersecurity. “The only way to keep a secret is for three people to know it and two of them to be dead.”


http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ransomware-exploit
-20170512-story.html



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Friday, May 12, 2017 11:59 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


The NSA had discovered the vulnerability is MS code years ago but (as I have been bitching about for years) rather than allow people the oppty to harden their PCs, NSA decided they could take advantage of the vulnerability by developing attack tools for its own benefit, and leaving everyone else vulnerable. So, yeah, thanks NSA.



Curiously, family was watching "Live Free or Die Hard" when I told them about it.

-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake

THUGR, JONESING FOR WWIII
All those guns 1kiki, are pointed towards your beloved Russia. All those cyber capabilities, pointed right at Russia. Thanks Putin, and get ready to duck.


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Saturday, May 13, 2017 12:45 AM

6STRINGJOKER


It's going to be a scary day for most folk when everybody gets a glance at what's on your hard drive. I'm pretty sure I already aired most of my dirty laundry here and on Facebook already, so Ransom away!

EDITED TO ADD:

I just re-read that and thought it might have come off as everybody is going to be scared when they see what's on Your hard drive Sigs.... Not what I meant. I mean when everybody gets to see what is on everybody else's hard drive.





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Saturday, May 13, 2017 1:46 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Just thought this should be bumped.

People have gotten - lazy? inured? defeated? 'They're gonna do 'it' anyway' - where 'it' is either spying or hacking. 'What's protecting me is ... why me when there are billions of other targets. I might as well get hit by lightening.' The problem is, 'they' have tools that far exceed your ability to comprehend. 'They' don't have to pick and choose who they do 'it' to. They can pick you AND billions of others, all at the same time.

You WILL be victimized. It's just a matter of when, and how many of 'them' will do it.




Care to try addressing the facts, again?

Or do you shoot nothing but blanks?


Originally posted by G:
"I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago."
G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.

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Saturday, May 13, 2017 8:53 AM

6STRINGJOKER



I think, at least for me, Numb is the right word.

For whatever reason people wouldn't or couldn't wrap their minds around spying I told them was being done to us (or at least was possible) almost two decades ago. I assume that these are the same reasons that when they find out from the News and from leaks that almost all of what I said IS actually happening they don't even seem to care, for the most part.

For me, all I can do is take solace in the fact that I'm not an important or uniquely interesting person that anybody would likely spend taxpayer dollars watching any more than the other 7 billion people on the planet. Even if they were for some reason, what would they do with that information anyway as long as I never grow any aspirations for political power?

I know in my drunken ramblings I've talked about the episode of the 80's Twilight Zone called Special Service that had me looking behind picture frames for hidden cameras for about a month after I saw it when I was like 7-8 years old. Reading 1984 when I was around 20 made me almost completely paranoid knowing that most of the tec in that book had already been invented by then. Hell... all of it and much more is in at least half of American homes today.

I don't have time or energy to devote to any of that anymore. Short of Snake Plisken putting in the World Code and shutting down all electricity and tec, this is the future. It's already here.

I don't see any way to stop it, and I'm not going to drive myself crazy about it either. I don't know how most people carry on without even giving it a second thought. It will always be in the back of my mind somewhere, probably right next to the idea that at any time the dicks in charge could end the planet with nuclear strikes.

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Saturday, May 13, 2017 1:47 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


We have Debian and its application loaded on our home PCs, and upgrade (update, upgrade, autoclean, autoremove) frequently. Not invulnerable, but not so easily hacked.

The problem is the servers "out there". Banks and hospital running Microsoft, and no firewalls? Can't they afford to contract with real computer experts? What the hell in wrong with them?

-----------

"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake

THUGR, JONESING FOR WWIII
All those guns 1kiki, are pointed towards your beloved Russia. All those cyber capabilities, pointed right at Russia. Thanks Putin, and get ready to duck.


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Saturday, May 13, 2017 2:16 PM

6STRINGJOKER


I don't even bother with any of that anymore even Sigs. There isn't a software package in the world that could keep the government out of your PC if it wants in. I've got nothing really all that important at the end of the day, and so what if they find my porn stash or whatever. Like I said... no political asperations here, and since about 70% of the internet is porn of every "shade of gray", I'm in good company. I'm pretty much un-blackmailable at this point since I'm not married and I've already embarrassed myself online here and on other places where people actually know who I am. If they want to bust me for using Kodi they probably have 10 million other people on that to do list.

I've only once ever had my credit card used without my permission. I burn all of my mail, so nobody got it the old way. I'm thinking one of my online purchases were to blame and that stuff is just out of your control. In the end the card company had to deal with it and it didn't cost me anything to fix.

If I had a business I'd be more worried about at least protecting it from low-to-mid level hackers. But other than that I don't really care..


I was kind of pissed when I was working at the Mart though. I let the HR girl know that Windows XP was no longer going to be supported about 4 months early and the company was too cheap to upgrade OS's or buy new computers to replace the relics that all the employee info was on. I'm sure at least 1,000 people already have my SS#. What are you going to do?

It is what it is.

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Sunday, May 14, 2017 4:02 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Right before ransomware made the news here ( http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-me-ln-hollywood-hospital
-bitcoin-20160217-story.html
) a co-worker's fil had his computer shut down by a ransomware attack.

You might ask - who is he? A CEO of a major company? A business owner? He's neither of those, or anything remotely resembling them. He's a retired EMT, just a regular guy indistinguishable from any other regular guy - or gal. FORTUNATELY, his sil is a computer guru who had built the system, including a regular automatic backup. So the sil spent a few hours wiping and reinstalling the system until he got a clean backup. It was a pain, but not fatal. But there are two lessons I took from that - it can happen to anybody, and the ability to recover would be beyond most people.

On to the continuing story -

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/13/technology/ransomware-attack-who-got-h
urt/index.html


http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/13/technology/ransomware-attack-protect-y
ourself/index.html

How to protect yourself from the massive ransomware attack

The worm is primarily impacting business, where it can spread quickly through a network to take down an entire company. Business take longer to install critical updates and patches, often to avoid impacting any legacy software they are running.

But individuals with PCs running Windows should still take a few precautions. First, install any software updates immediately and make it a regular habit. Turn on auto-updaters where available (Microsoft offers that option). Microsoft also recommends running its free anti-virus software for Windows.

If you don't already have a backup routine, start now and regularly save copies of all your files. That way if your machine gets infected and your photos and documents are encrypted, you don't need to worry about losing them.

Finally, always stay alert. Don't click on links that you don't recognize, or download files from people you don't know personally.





Originally posted by G:
"I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago."
G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.

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Sunday, May 14, 2017 5:08 PM

6STRINGJOKER


Yeah... That's all good advice. Sometimes I forget that most people don't have my 1337 skillz.

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Saturday, March 24, 2018 2:07 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Atlanta City Government Hit With Crippling Ransomware Attack

In an unprecedented attack on the IT systems of a major municipal government, hackers are demanding ransom payable in bitcoin after seizing control of computers belonging to the Atlanta city government, AFP reports.

The ransomware assault shut down multiple internal and external applications for the city, including apps that people use to pay bills and access court-related information, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told a news conference Thursday.

The attack also impacted the city's emergency-response services - forcing dispatchers answering 911 calls to take down reports with a paper and pen

"This is a very serious situation," Bottoms said.

City officials said they learned of the attack before dawn Thursday when they detected unusual activity on their servers and discovered that some of the city's data had been encrypted without their consent.

Shortly after, the city government received a ransom note giving instructions for paying to free up files encrypted by the hackers.

MORE AT https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-23/atlanta-city-government-hit-
crippling-ransomware-attack


Also at cnn, fox etc.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts they were using Microsoft.

Yanno, people SAY they want security but they're never willing to pay for the expertise to actually secure their systems.



-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Saturday, March 24, 2018 3:20 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


So a few more people have egg on their face, after decades of computer experts explaining that Micro$haft is useless garbage, but these geniuses decided it was the defective product they MUST have. Yep, relying upon quicksand to be stable.

Ho hum.

Wake me when there is news.

I know aircraft Autopilot has been M$, when will a crash be identified as a result?
Are the killer self-driving cars also on Windows?

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Saturday, March 24, 2018 4:47 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Much of our air traffic control is on MS, as are our banks, hospitals, Equifax (heh!), etc. Also, I have been told that our warships run a modified MS.

There was an air traffic control tower way out eastwards of LAX (I don't recall which airfield) and it's job was to "line up" air traffic for the larger airports (LAX, Ontario, Long Beach, Burbank, etc.) Well that site crashed, and from the muffled explanations that came out in the newspaper, we figured out that someone had forgotten to do the weekly MS "reboot" which is so necessary because MS memory management is so crappy.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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