Microsoft slams the government for stockpiling software exploits

Once infected, the ransomware encrypts all data on that computer with the hacker then going on to ask the victim for a sum, often in Bitcoins. But so far several said they have found no way to break the encryption.

According to Stefan Tanase, security researcher for Kaspersky Lab, an explanation for this is that the ransomware was active during the weekend and that many companies have not noticed the infections, and payments will increase on Monday, as they will resume operations. And despite the best efforts of a young security researcher in the United Kingdom who goes by MalwareTech, the temporarily halted ransomware has simply been altered and is being spread by copycats. “We can surely expect more”.

“The numbers are extremely low and coming down fast”.

The attackers may yet tweak the code and restart the cycle. The statement said antivirus systems are working to destroy it.

There are also concerns that Asia is yet to feel the full force of the ransomeware, with the extent of the damage to become apparent as Monday progresses.

Economic experts offered differing views on how much the attack, and associated computer outages, would cost businesses and governments.

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“So long as the domain isn´t revoked, this particular strain will no longer cause harm, but patch your systems ASAP as they will try again”.

In Vietnam, Vu Ngoc Son, a director of Bkav Anti Malware, said dozens of cases of infection had been reported there, but he declined to identify any of the victims.

It’s on track to be one of the biggest recorded ransomware attacks ever, with tens of thousands of infected computers in almost 100 countries.

French carmaker Renault was forced to stop production at sites in France, Slovenia and Romania, while FedEx said it was “implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible”.

Elsewhere in Europe, the attack hit companies including Spain’s Telefonica, a global broadband and telecommunications company. Train systems were hit in Germany and Russian Federation, and phone companies in Madrid and Moscow.

The hackers remain anonymous for now, but it appears that they are amateurs. What if new attacks, they anxious, were launched that exploited the same vulnerabilities but couldn’t be stopped as easily as Friday’s version?

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was sharing information with domestic and foreign partners and was ready to lend technical support.

The bug exploited by the attack was hoarded by the United States national security agency (NSA), leaked earlier this year and since patched by Microsoft – but patches aren’t flawless, rollouts take time and WannaCrypt locked up a lot of machines in its first wave. If we didn’t do so we have to pay for the hackers to protect our system, so people named ransomware as WannaCry. Otherwise, they’re literally fighting the problems of the present with tools from the past.

Microsoft said it had pushed out automatic Windows updates to defend existing clients from WannaCry.

Microsoft has introduced a security “patch” to tackle the situation.

WannaCry or WanaCrypt0r or WCry, the ransomware behind the cyber-attacks, is a modified version of Eternal Blue, a government hacking tool that a group known as the Shadow Brokers released into the wild only last month.

Britain’s home secretary said one in five of 248 National Health Service groups had been hit.

“There’s clearly some culpability on the part of the USA intelligence services”.

The kill switch couldn’t help those already infected, however. The majority of organizations affected, on Friday and later, was in Europe, according to Symantec.

Senior U.S. security officials held another meeting in the White House Situation Room on Saturday, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the NSA were working to help mitigate damage and identify the perpetrators of the massive cyber attack, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.