Petya Ransomware Attack News is currently breaking about a new widespread Petya ransomware attack, striking large multinational companies across Europe, with Ukraine’s government, banks, state power utility and Kiev’s airport and metro system particularly badly affected. IT security experts commented below. Ermis Sfakiyanudis, Cybersecurity Expert and CEO at Trivalent: When Petya was first submitted to VirusTotal, only two vendors were able to detect it, leaving many systems defenceless if they are unmatched and rely on AV. WPP, the advertising and branding firm, appears to have been completely compromised. Chris Goettl, Manager, Product Management at Ivanti: Several critical vulnerabilities with…
ISBuzz Team
SHARE It’s been another banner year for leakers. In May, Wikileaks released the CIA’s Vault7 cyberwarfare documentation,1 and the Shadow Brokers released NSA exploit information, including the Windows EternalBlue2 exploit. EternalBlue was quickly weaponized into the WannaCry ransomware that pummeled the Internet for days. The Petya ransomware hitting Eastern Europe is also reportedly using EternalBlue to infect machines. This is all bad, but what’s worse is the revelation of how the intelligence community uses tools and methodologies to find vulnerabilities and build exploits. It’s akin to how Eli Whitney’s principle of interchangeable parts3 marked the beginning of the industrial revolution. The information in these leaks…
It was reported this weekend that a group called ‘System DZ’ are responsible for hacking multiple US Government websites on Sunday, IT security commented below. Lee Munson, Security Researcher at Comparitech.com: “While there is no way for sure to know how Ohio government websites were hacked recently, the likelihood is that the attackers leveraged cross-site scripting or SQL injection (as done previously, here) to gain access to the back end. Such an attack is not overly sophisticated and is easy to pull off against a website that lacks basic security controls, such as correct read/write permissions, latest patch installs, etc. Once the attacker…
Almost half of UK-based organisations still do not understand what the upcoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are, according to research from Nexsan, a global leader in redefining unified storage. With the legislation coming into effect from May 25th 2018, organisations have less than a year to prepare, or risk fines of up to 4% of their global revenue. Despite awareness efforts, a recent survey of over 100 respondents revealed that almost half (48%) did not know what GDPR is. The new legislation is set to replace the EU data protection directive and will hold organisations responsible for any personal data…
According to a report in Daily Mail, families are at risk from hackers taking advantage of security flaws in connected gadgets. A survey of 15 devices by the consumer group Which? found that eight were vulnerable to hacking via the internet, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. Ben Hertzberg, Research Group Manager at Imperva commented below. Ben Hertzberg, Research Group Manager at Imperva: “The main threat with the Internet of Things (IoT) is that there are billions of internet-connected devices where basic security standards are not enforced. Devices are shipped with default credentials (sometimes without the ability to change them), vulnerabilities in their web interfaces, remote update procedures and…
Kaspersky has released its new ransomware report – KSN Report: Ransomware in 2016-2017, downloadable from here. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at High-Tech Bridge commented below. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at High-Tech Bridge: “The report is a clear indicator that the ransomware market is becoming more professional and mature. Actors are working on various niche specializations to avoid direct competition and maximize their profit. In the near future, we will probably see an important growth of complementary [cybercrime] services offered to the ransomware gangs, such as online or phone support for the victims, or money laundering services. Big data and machine learning are also coming to the service of…
It has been reported that Virgin Media has urged its Virgin Media has told 800,000 customers to change their passwords to protect against being hacked. An investigation by Which? found that hackers could access the provider’s Super Hub 2 router, allowing access to users’ smart appliances. It has been argued in the past that Virgin Media password advice is far from ideal- it constrains users to certain characters, whilst making it common/ public knowledge, how the passwords should be structured. IT security experts commented below. Mark James, Security Specialist at ESET: “As we embrace more and more IOT and come to…
Following the news yesterday that Honda was the victim of the WannaCry ransomware, it has been reported this morning that Australian speed camera’s have also been hit. As we know, WannaCry first hit the headlines last month after infecting systems worldwide- including the NHS. This begs the question; how are people still falling victim to this malware? Mark James – Security Specialist at ESET commented below. Mark James, Security Specialist at ESET: “One of the biggest problems with opportunistic malware is that it has no boundaries;it will infect anything that meets the criteria. When that criteria is a vulnerability in…
News broke that the UK’s energy sector is extremely worried about the risk of potential cyber attacks, such the WannaCry ransomware attack that recently hit the NHS, on the nation’s power stations and electricity grids. Edgard Capdevielle, CEO at Nozomi Networks commented below. Edgard Capdevielle, CEO at Nozomi Networks: “Reports that the Energy sector are taking the threat from cyber-attacks seriously is reassuring, but it’s how they actually monitor and respond that is the key. “While protecting sensitive information is obviously important, and shouldn’t be ignored, the threat to the energy/oil and gas sector is more complex. When you think of how the power grid has evolved,…
Following the news about Russian Hackers Trading Thousands Of MP, Diplomat And Police Passwords, Rashmi Knowles CISSP, EMEA Field CTO at RSA commented below. Rashmi Knowles CISSP, EMEA Field CTO at RSA: “This story shows just how important it is that people change all their passwords in the wake of a breach. People often use the same password for multiple sites, even for accessing work-essential applications and services, and do not change them for years; this means that when these credentials are harvested, as we can see in this instance, it can have serious repercussions. As we can see, hackers might sit on these for…