Wanna Decryptor: Stay Vigilant

A malicious new strain of self-replicating ransomware known as Wanna Decryptor / Wannacry / Wcry is disabling computers worldwide and has affected leading organisations such as NHS.

How does Wanna Decryptor work?

Like in most cases it happens through clicking a malicious link from an email, website advert, or a Dropbox link. Once it has been clicked, the program spreads through the computer and locks all the files with high-level encryption.

Affected Organisations within the first 48hrs

• NHS
• banks BBVA and Santander
• Telephonica Spain – over 85% of computers affected according to an article by Madrid-based El Mundo
• Vodafone Espana
• KPMG consultancy

People who have yet to install the Microsoft fix—MS17-010—should do so right away…

Microsoft

Microsoft took an unusual step by releasing a security update available to everyone (including XP – which is no longer supported). The software giant said in a statement: “We know some of our customers are running versions of Windows that no longer receive mainstream support. That means those customers will not have received the Security Update released in March. Given the potential impact to customers and their businesses, we made the decision to make the Security Update for platforms in custom support only, Windows XP, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2003, broadly available for download here.”

Spotlight Studios Infrastructure

We’re proud to host here in the UK and whilst the majority of our cloud infrastructure runs on Linux (which is completely unaffected) our partnership with providers such as UKFast helps us deliver exceptional services to many of our clients. It’s times like these that we can demonstrate that we’re at the forefront of issues such as these. In a recent Update by their CEO and Director of Technical Services advised that a team led by the TD “…and a number of in-house Windows and security experts have been on high alert since yesterdays announcement and we have been working through the night to protect all our clients, infrastructure and firewalls to block this attack vector and prevent it from causing harm.”.

Stay Vigilant

This is one of many ransomware out there. Please be vigilant with emails that you open, especially opening attachments or clicking on links from contacts you don’t know.

Update: 17/05/2017

Greg Clark, Symantec CEO, weighs in on the global cyberattack that affected companies in over 150 countries over the last few days and what you should do to protect your data.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000618676&es_p=4182343