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Old 05-14-2017, 08:26 AM   #31
syg00
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 273 View Post
Otherwise they'll get away with it or be hired by their government.
lol - the world is full of skeptics.

A few years ago ago I was at a Linux conference (significantly) sponsored by a department of our federal government that was/is a member of the infamous Echelon cartel. Few seemed to mind.
I still have a stubbie cooler with the catch phrase "play the game no one else can".
 
Old 05-14-2017, 09:20 AM   #32
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I notice that Microsoft are saying there's a Security Patch for this that was released in March. It's striking to note that it's available for those paying for Support of older versions of Windows.

Glad I ditched Windows; I was still on XP as it seemed that upgrades all the time kept changing things just for the sake of it. Windows in any flavour is just not secure on its own.

I'm just a home user but who knows what's coming next?
 
Old 05-14-2017, 10:34 AM   #33
ondoho
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Originally Posted by grumpyskeptic View Post
I expect that the person or persons who did it will get caught sooner or later and spend a very very long time in prison. So far it appears they have only made a comparatively small amount of money out of it.
i read in one of the articles linked that it's likely that this exploit was written a while ago with private users in mind (hence the relatively small ransom) and the originator probably abandoned it already...
what a surprise to suddenly get that much attention...

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Originally Posted by 273 View Post
Only if they're in the extradition zones for the countries affected.
yep, if i was that person i'd start packing
 
Old 05-14-2017, 11:06 AM   #34
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So how was your weekend? We *nix guys spent our weekend enjoying the summer, basking in the sun..while our Wintel sys ads spent their time at work, attending calls here and there.
 
Old 05-14-2017, 11:13 AM   #35
273
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Originally Posted by ondoho View Post
yep, if i was that person i'd start packing
No reason to assume they don't live outside of the extradition zone already. The internet is global and the extraditions zones not so much. This could just be some idiots in the UK, US or elsewhere in the extradition zone but if they've any intelligence at all they'll be based somewhere outside and nobody will ever look for them.
 
Old 05-14-2017, 11:20 AM   #36
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Well, it's unlikely to be the Russians this time. Apparently Russia was the country worst hit, and some think it was the real target. What happened to everyone else was just collateral damage.

The problem is that the online world is now so hyperconnected that any spreading malware "puts a girdle round the earth in 90 minutes".
 
Old 05-14-2017, 11:24 AM   #37
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Not Russia still leaves any African country, many middle-eastern and Asian countries, much of South America and many other non-treaty-signing nations. As you point out the internet encompasses the globe.
 
Old 05-14-2017, 11:29 AM   #38
fatmac
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Back to central servers & terminals, that's the way to go, too much freedom had been given to end users, something was bound to go wrong some day - but we should never have been using Microsoft products in the first place, we should have been using a version of unix from the start!
 
Old 05-14-2017, 11:44 AM   #39
hazel
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Two things really worry me about this. The first is that everything now depends on the backup policies of the affected organisations. WannaCry eventually deletes encrypted data if the ransom is not paid. Everything that has been backed up can easily be restored, but given the famously ramshackle IT policies of the NHS, how much confidence can we have in their backups? If a large amount of patient data simply disappears for good, then lives are going to be lost.

Secondly, the speed with which it spread and the indiscriminate nature of the damage is worrying. It need not have been ransomware after all; suppose it had been something like stuxnet that targeted infrastructure?
 
Old 05-14-2017, 12:24 PM   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatmac View Post
Back to central servers & terminals, that's the way to go, too much freedom had been given to end users, something was bound to go wrong some day - but we should never have been using Microsoft products in the first place, we should have been using a version of Unix from the start!
As you rightly intimate, Permissions needs to become a Serious part of ALL operating systems. The Internet Gateways need serious locking down & the Mail Servers need to be better at scanning attachments & embedded links to anything. If mail processing is slowed because of tight security then so be it. We are all a bit too accustomed to instant communication but perhaps it's time to sacrifice speedy gratification for a bit of safety.

I don't think we can go back to Terminals & Central Servers setup. The Genie got let out of the bottle a long time ago and he's grown too big to cram back in. Also, in order to run some applications on the server for a big organisation, you'd need something approaching a Cray as the server.

Nice idea, but we've gone way too far down the powerful desktop road to be able to turn back. Let's see how MS plan to cope with this as a clear & present danger.

Last edited by SimonDevine; 05-14-2017 at 02:24 PM.
 
Old 05-14-2017, 12:35 PM   #41
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I see a lot of organisations are actually paying the ransom. Do they not have backups? Probably not!
 
Old 05-14-2017, 12:49 PM   #42
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I see a lot of organisations are actually paying the ransom. Do they not have backups? Probably not!
Agreed. There's way too much complacency out there. XP is the main problem here, so far as I see. I used XP from 2004 to October last year. I had three major events so decided it was time to get safe so went Slacking.

The trouble is that IT has become so ubiquitous and people don't realise how open Windows still is. It is a bit of a rude awakening, but it's my sincere hope that ordinary working people start to recognise that computing is much more than the on/off switch on the box.
 
Old 05-14-2017, 02:38 PM   #43
Soadyheid
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Is it just me or during times of cutbacks and austerity purges, it always appears to be the IT sections that are culled first?

Maybe this will draw attention to the fact that IT's not just an easy target for saving money when hard times hit.

Play Bonny!

 
Old 05-14-2017, 04:41 PM   #44
ardvark71
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Hi all...

I know there are a few folks here (like myself) who still own systems that run Windows XP. For those interested, Microsoft has released a patch for this particular piece of Malware here. There is also the Microsoft page concerning this (along with the SP3 and other patches) here.

Regards...

Last edited by ardvark71; 05-14-2017 at 05:03 PM. Reason: Correction/Added information and link.
 
Old 05-14-2017, 05:30 PM   #45
KennyIRC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ardvark71 View Post
Hi all...

I know there are a few folks here (like myself) who still own systems that run Windows XP. For those interested, Microsoft has released a patch for this particular piece of Malware here. There is also the Microsoft page concerning this (along with the SP3 and other patches) here.

Regards...
From what I read online, the patch is good for those machines that hasn't been hit by the ransomware virus yet. It's too late for the infected machines.

I was reading a NY Times article, the ransomware virus attack began as a simple phishing email.

Too bad there is no patch or technlogy to stop the stupidity of people still clicking on links in emails.
 
  


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