{"id":5491,"date":"2017-05-13T17:25:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T21:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/?p=5491"},"modified":"2017-05-16T01:40:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T05:40:13","slug":"pc-security-alert-wannacry-worm-affecting-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/2017\/05\/13\/pc-security-alert-wannacry-worm-affecting-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"!! PC SECURITY ALERT !! “WannaCry” Worm infecting millions!"},"content":{"rendered":"

…Hoo boy, guys and gals. And here I thought my CPU overheating was all I needed to worry about. With this, it’s the least of my worries.
\nSo, I’m on Discord, just viewing a few unread sections, when I came across of this video<\/a> that definitely grabbed my attention. It seems our old friend, CryptoLock has been replaced with a much more aggressive Ransomware Worm, called “WannaCry”.
\n–
\nHow a ‘worm’ is different from a standard computer virus, is it doesn’t need an unsuspecting computer user to click on a link to become infected. This thing travels the Internet, looking for computers with a specific vulnerability (that not even Microsoft knew about). When it finds one, it will encrypt the users files and send a key to the attacker. There, the affected user is presented a popup, stated they have a limited time ’till their files are wiped from their drives (unless they pay a $300 Bitcoin ransom fee).
\nBitcoin cannot be traced, making it easy for assholes who do this to fully get away with it.<\/p>\n

The origins of the worm, is a confirmed report that this came from the hacking and distributing of ‘anti-spy tools’ to the public. These tools were created by the NSA, where..surprise surprise, they were planning to use it in Windows 10 to spy on users (just another valid reason NEVER to upgrade)!
\nSo, how can you<\/em> protect yourself from Ransomware? There’s two things. First, make sure you have ALL Windows updates from Windows Update<\/strong>! It’s rumored by doing so, will shield you (as these updates are emergency security updates, in order to plug up any known<\/u> vulnerabilities in Windows 7, 8.1, and (ironically) 10).
\nThe second (and is always a good thing to do), have regular backups of your data. Get an External Hard Drive, backup your data, and unplug it from your computer. Even getting a box of CD-RW’s and backing up your data with those, would work.<\/p>\n

Doing the first thing, as I said, should<\/em> be enough to protect you (and it’s free). I personally have my doubts (as I always do, being stuck in ‘panic mode’). I can never have nice things, it seems.
\nI fear the asshole who made the worm is going to make a backdoor, trying to go around Windows Update. I do have Windows Defender as a firewall (being controlled by Microsoft Security Essentials), so maybe that could stop it, if that happens? I really hope, anyway.
\nThere’s also BitDefender. I’ve heard of this program, but never used it. Going to their website, it claims they’ve been protecting their clients from the worm for a long time, and to ‘join them’ (for $60+). I mean sure, they offer a 30 day free trial on each of their products, but these “free trials” have been known to never alert you when they’re about to expire (to delete them before they charge you)…, and still manage to charge you anyway, without your authorization.
\nI rather not take that risk.
\nAs for this website being taken down (if they mange to infect the shared server it’s on), this isn’t possible as it’s a Linux server. So I have nothing to fear with that.<\/p>\n

In closing, please share this blog post (and any Youtube videos going over this Ransomware worm) to your friends and family. The more people who know about this, the less computers will be infected (and be hosts to more computers becoming infected).<\/p>\n

.
\nEDIT: I’ve been informed by you guys, that some unnamed user managed to slap a killswitch on the worm, stopping it from infecting more computers. This is great news, but the person also warns the assholes who made the worm, could possibly rewrite the code (which will remove the killswitch) and allow the worm to keep infecting.
\nThis is not just one person living in someone’s basement, this is the work of organized crime. They know what they’re doing, and how to stop any attempts from stopping their goldmine of a worm from crippling more businesses (such as hospitals).<\/p>\n

Take this time, if you haven’t already, to do the necessary preparations to protect yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…Hoo boy, guys and gals. And here I thought my CPU overheating was all I needed to worry about. With this, it’s the least of my worries. So, I’m on Discord, just viewing a few unread sections, when I came … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-personal","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5491"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5499,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions\/5499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}