Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or on some IT guy being asleep at the wheel...
No. IT management owns this.
A lack of professionalism owns this. In other industries engineers can overrule management and have legal protection when doing so.
Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
371–380 of 435 posts
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#372FYI to Sysadmins: Paying the ransom at this point will be a waste of money, as the contact e-mail address has been blocked. https://posteo.de/blog/info-zur-ransomware-petrwrappetya-bet... (German) https://posteo.de/en/blog/info-on-the-petrwrappetya-ransomwa... (English)
It doesn't seem that getting ransoms was the actual goal of this malware, it seems rather like plausible deniability.
This is a good description of some details https://medium.com/@thegrugq/pnyetya-yet-another-ransomware-... - it rather looks like a targeted attack to do chaos+damage to Ukraine.
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always seemed like the best way to end ransomware is to launch hundreds of variants that demand money but don't actually decrypt anything. Unethical, to be sure, but eventually people would learn not to give them money. All the competent ransomware authors are probably quite unhappy whenever a defective ransomware strain pops up.
It's like saying best way to fight heroin addicts is to supply market with poisoned heroin. No heroin users - no problems!
The US government did this with alcohol during prohibition,
> by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always seemed like the best way to end ransomware is to launch hundreds of variants that demand money but don't actually decrypt anything. Unethical, to be sure, but eventually people would learn not to give them money. All the competent ransomware authors are probably quite unhappy whenever a defective ransomware strain pops up.
It's like saying best way to fight heroin addicts is to supply market with poisoned heroin. No heroin users - no problems!
except that getting malware isn't addictive...
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#375Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#376Maersk is down. Their main site says: Maersk IT systems are down We can confirm that Maersk IT systems are down across multiple sites and business units due to a cyber attack. We continue to assess the situation. The safety of our employees, our operations and customer's business is our top priority. We will update when we have more information.[1] Maersk is the largest shipping company in the world. 600 ships, with…
The web sites that are supposed to give APM port status are frozen. It appears that many (all?) APM terminals worldwide are not accepting incoming trucks. Unclear whether ships are being unloaded. There's surprisingly little info about this from the actual ports. Even Twitter output has become so PR-controlled that nobody involved is getting important information out. APM, Maersk, and the Port of Los Angeles all have…
And the next relevant update:
6/27/2017 7:11:15 PM
As of 6:30 Tues. 6/27, APM Terminals employees are still without email or office telephone services. No emails or voicemails can be accessed or answered. Please standby for PA Alerts or for critical matters please contact Giovanni Antonuccio (908) 966 - 2779.
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
I honestly cannot tell if this is brilliant sarcasm or if you'be somehow missed all the "very loud discussion" about Windows 10 on HN. :)
If you are referring to the level of analytics gathered, I fully agree! My point is, there would be a similarly loud reaction (at a wider scale) if a backdoor were introduced.
How could you tell a backdoor from a regular bug?
From a code perspective, of course.
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's more accurate to say that the comment is explicitly stating that Windows was insecure prior to that date, the implication from which is that it was not as insecure after (else why make the distinction of the date at all).
> the implication from which is that it was not as insecure after I'm saying there is no specific implication without confirmation from the author as the statement can be taken either way, and any you think you see is more to do with your state of mind than the statement itself. It's a statement about what we know. We know something to be factually true prior to that date. Afterwards is open to debate, and is opinion…
I feel like you and I are not operating on the same definition of implication.
In the above comment when using the word implication my intent was "a conclusion that can be drawn despite not being explicitly stated".
To be unambiguous, the explicit statement is that computers prior to a specific date should be considered to be compromised. The conclusion that can be drawn, based on the fact that the writer specified that date, is that later dates did not qualify for the same statement, because the conditions were not sufficient. That is to say, that they were not insecure enough for the writer to include in his comment. That is the implication, despite the writer not saying outright that computers after that date were "secure".
The conclusion assumes the credibility of the writer, and the intellectual honesty of their comment (i.e. they didn't put that date there just to be facetious) but I believe that's a fair assumption given the context of questioning the semantics.
I also note that the actual implication here is not that computers are secure after that date, or even that computers are insecure but not compromised. The implication is, in fact, that while computers might be compromised after that date, the writer doesn't believe it's worth advising people to ASSUME they are compromised.
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#379Maybe this is the year of Linux on desktop.
Or maybe Linux/Android on the desktop? Maybe all the PCs out there used for cash registers,ATMs, etc will run locked down Android systems in the near future instead of Windows.
The average Android phone probably has more spyware than the average windows machine these days. Probably a lot more vulnerabilities too because they rarely if ever get patched. Even the best android phones are only patched for 2 years.
Linux maybe more secure, but android is a ticking time bomb.
Re: Another Ransomware Outbreak Is Going Global
#380> Ukraine's government, National Bank [..]
Now there's a new attack target: the central bank. Send 100 BTC to this address and I will decrypt the balances stored by your central bank, so you, again, know how much money you own.