An ransomware attack has passed all its records and reached the worst fears of security experts: right now the WannaCry variant is spreading like a real epidemic in organizations around the world, encrypting its files and demanding a bailout in bitcoins for every Infected computer. According to the cybersecurity firm Avast, there are more than 75 thousand detections in 99 countries.
The problems in the West began a few hours ago in Spain and the United Kingdom. While in the first country in large companies the announcement of 'Has Been Hacked' on most of its computers emerged, the British National Health Service (NHS) found that more than 39 of its health organizations were affected, forcing Hospitals to stop many of their services and even doctors to reschedule surgeries, which has certainly endangered the lives of many people.
Philippa Roxby of the BBC reported on the matter:
"The NHS has been hit by cyber attacks before, but not on this scale. Disruption is inevitable, particularly when something as important as patient records is inaccessible to hospitals and doctors. That be canceled and rescheduled, and patients be transferred to hospitals that are not affected. "
According to Avast, this infection started especially affecting Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan, but it has not been slow to expand all over the globe. In fact, according to MalwareTech, it has already reached all continents, including all of Latin
America.
Apparently this malicious program has been especially targeted at large companies and organizations taking advantage of a vulnerability present in non-updated versions of Windows, using the cyber-weapon developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA) known as Eternal Blue, which was Stolen last month by the hacker group ShadowBrokers. Microsoft was responsible for providing the necessary updates to patch this vulnerability in March, but it is not surprising that many companies postpone or even ignore Windows updates.
As a result, thousands of victims are now receiving the same message around the globe, although in 28 languages:
As can be seen in this note, the rescue requested by the hackers is $ 300 in bitcoins per computer for the next 3 days, while the figure will double after this deadline and up to 7 days, after which the files will be kidnapped Irrecoverable. If we take into account that there are 75 thousand detections and counting worldwide, and that free each computer costs 300 dollars, the abduction could provide cybercriminals over the next few days figures over 20 million dollars in bitcoins. Which implies that the world may be facing the biggest extortion theft story.
Several victims have already begun to pay. At the time of writing, more than $ 1,700 in bitcoins have been shipped unrecoverable. Meanwhile, infections continue alarmingly on hundreds of computers per institution, as can be seen in these photographs of the University of Milano-Bicocca's teams in Milan, Italy.
The Colombian government has officially warned of this massive incident, using it to issue channels of assistance in the event of an attack.
The Consequences.
Right now the crisis is being lived and solved in the best way that every national cyber-security institution advises. Or, on the contrary, the victims have decided to pay to resume their operations as soon as possible. But it must be said that they will soon be guilty.
CyberEdgeGroup consulting firm since March had already reported that Microsoft's lack of security was becoming a concern for organizations as far as contracting ransomware is concerned. This, therefore, has been an attack as well warned as that of DAO last year.
So, Bitcoin has been left in the middle of the hurricane. This year, as it has increased its adoption, have been exponentially regulatory initiatives across the globe, especially worried about its pseudo-anonymity, which has been highly appreciated by hackers to be able to disappear with ransomware ransoms. And if the blockchain is supposed to be public, the truth is that a transaction can not always be traced. Hackers often use mixers, ie services that mix their funds with those of other users enough time to fade the trail, or send the funds to ghost companies that are responsible for laundering the money and convert it into other currencies.
However, it must be said that washing the amount that they intend to collect on this occasion will not be easy. And meanwhile, while the blame for this incident is split between Windows vulnerabilities, companies for not keeping their systems up to date and even the NSA for developing Eternal Blue, it is quite likely that much tougher regulations are coming up for cryptocurrency Across the globe.