Latest attack show JUST how vulnerable we are. And why ONE tech company refused to hack itself.
Remember that shooting in San Bernardino? The fact that Apple didn’t want to help the intel community hack the iPhone was a big news story.
It was pitting privacy concerns against national security concerns.
In light of the global hacking event, don’t THEY look like the smart ones?
Law enforcement agencies may want a way into highly secure gadgets and apps to further their investigations — such as when the FBI pressed Apple last year to hack into the iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino terror attack. But the companies have repeatedly pointed out that there’s no safe way to build an entry point just for trusted government organizations.
Though the NSA hasn’t confirmed it was hacked, the purported leak of its tools shows that even supposedly secret vulnerabilities can get into the wrong hands.–LaTimes
It hit worldwide. Computers were hacked and held for ransom. A weakness in the Microsoft operating system left computers around the world open to a ransomware attack.
Ransomware — the latest tech word that even the computer-illiterate will know by Monday — is malicious software that lodges itself on your computer, locking it up until a ransom is paid to acquire the password needed to bypass it.
And it was ENORMOUSLY widespread.
It was first reported in England — hackers gained access to the National Health Service computers, effectively shuttering the entire system. Patients were told to stay home; doctors and nurses were unable to access email or medical records and had to take notes by hand. The hackers demanded a ransom, to be paid in bitcoin.
By Friday afternoon, though, it was clear that this was not a limited attack. Businesses in at least 11 other countries reported similar cyberattacks. Many were paralyzed.
…Investigators are pursuing a lot of leads, but so far they have very little concrete evidence. They do think it’s the work of criminals, not a foreign power. They know the original hacking tool was leaked by a group called the Shadow Brokers, which dumps stolen NSA tools online. But they don’t know who the Shadow Brokers hackers are or whether they perpetrated the attack.–WP
The NHS ransomware looks like WannaCry – the same malware that has hit Telefonica and other big orgs today in Spain #nhscyberattack
— Sam Gad Jones (@samgadjones) May 12, 2017
Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, said it had recorded at least 45,000 attacks in as many as 74 countries. The worst hit by far was Russia, followed by Ukraine, India and Taiwan, the company said. Users in Latin America and Africa were also struck.–MSN
THE CROWBAR YOU USE TO GET IN
The hacking tool had been developed by the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s powerful military intelligence unit. The NSA had developed its ‘Eternal Blue’ hacking weapon to gain access to computers used by terrorists and enemy states.
…One computer security expert said ‘Eternal Blue’ was used as the ‘crowbar’ that effectively opened the doors to computers, making them vulnerable to attack. The results have been devastating.
Sean Sullivan, security adviser to F-Secure, a cyber security company, said: “Shadow Brokers obtained the NSA tools that exposed a vulnerability in Microsoft’s operating systems. They dumped the instructions detailing how to get in. The exploit is the ‘crowbar’ to open the door and the ransomware is the ‘hand grenade’ you lob in once the door is open.”–Telegraph
Some agencies, using older computers, were particularly vulnerable to the attack. The British Hospitals were among them.
