Massive cyber attack around the World

An NSA Cyber Weapon Might Be Behind A Massive Global Ransomware Outbreak
Thomas Fox-Brewster , FORBES STAFF
May 12, 2017 12:10 PM 1

A huge ransomware outbreak has hit NHS hospitals, amongst [+]
It’s been a matter of weeks since a shady hacker crew called Shadow Brokers dumped a load of tools believed to belong to the National Security Agency (NSA). It now appears one tool, an exploit of Microsoft Windows called Eternal Blue, is being used as one method of spreading a ransomware variant called WannaCry across the world.

The ransomware has hit UK hospitals hard, with multiple sources reporting closures of entire wards, with some National Health Service (NHS) staff being sent home.

Here’s what a London GP sees when trying to connect to the NHS network pic.twitter.com/lV8zXarAXS

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It affects all

A UK security researcher has told the BBC how he "accidentally" halted the spread of the malicious ransomware that has affected hundreds of organisations, including the UK's NHS.
The 22-year-old man, known by the pseudonym MalwareTech, had taken a week off work, but decided to investigate the ransomware after hearing about the global cyber-attack.
He managed to bring the spread to a halt when he found what appeared to be a "kill switch" in the rogue software's code.
"It was actually partly accidental," he told the BBC, after spending the night investigating. "I have not slept a wink."
Although his discovery did not repair the damage done by the ransomware, it did stop it spreading to new computers, and he has been hailed an "accidental hero".
"I would say that's correct," he told the BBC.
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"The attention has been slightly overwhelming. The boss gave me another week off to make up for this train-wreck of a vacation."
What exactly did he discover?
The researcher first noticed that the malware was trying to contact a specific web address every time it infected a new computer.
But the web address it was trying to contact - a long jumble of letters - had not been registered.
MalwareTech decided to register it, and bought it for $10.69 (£8). Owning it would let him see where computers were accessing it from, and give him an idea of how widespread the ransomware was.
By doing so, he unexpectedly triggered part of the ransomware's code that told it to stop spreading.
Analysis: How did it start?
What is the ransomware?
This type of code is known as a "kill switch", which some attackers use to halt the spread of their software if things get out of hand.
He tested his discovery and was delighted when he managed to trigger the ransomware on demand.
"Now you probably can't picture a grown man jumping around with the excitement of having just been 'ransomwared', but this was me," he said in a blog post.
MalwareTech now thinks the code was originally designed to thwart researchers trying to investigate the ransomware, but it backfired by letting them remotely disable it.
Does this mean the ransomware is defeated?
While the registration of the web address appears to have stopped one strain of the ransomware spreading from device-to-device, it does not repair computers that are already infected.
Security experts have also warned that new variants of the malware that ignore the "kill switch" will appear.
"This variant shouldn't be spreading any further, however there'll almost certainly be copycats," said security researcher Troy Hunt in a blog post.
MalwareTech warned: "We have stopped this one, but there will be another one coming and it will not be stoppable by us.
"There's a lot of money in this, there is no reason for them to stop. It's not much effort for them to change the code and start over."

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Friday's cyber-attack has affected more than 200,000 victims in 150 countries, Europol chief Rob Wainwright says.

Speaking to Britain's ITV, he said the world faced an escalating threat, and there was concern about the level of potential attacks on Monday morning.
The virus took control of users' files, demanding payments; Russia and the UK were among the worst-hit countries.
Security experts have warned that another attack is imminent and could be unstoppable.
Mr Wainwright said he was concerned that the numbers of those affected would continue to rise when people returned to work on Monday morning.
"We're in the face of an escalating threat, the numbers are going up," he said, adding that the current attack was unprecedented.
"We are running around 200 global operations against cyber crime each year but we've never seen anything like this.
"The latest count is over 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries. Many of those victims will be businesses, including large corporations. The global reach is unprecedented."

■ Blogger halts ransomware 'by accident'
■ The ransomware causing chaos
■ Analysis: How it started

He said the ransomware was unique because it was used in combination with a worm - allowing it to spread through an infected computer through an entire network.
However, Mr Wainwright said that so far "remarkably few" payments had been made by victims of the attack.
BBC analysis of three accounts linked with the global attack suggests the hackers have been paid the equivalent of £22,080.
The Europol chief said it was working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to find those responsible, and that more than one person was likely to be involved.
The virus exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows software, first identified by the US National Security Agency, experts have said.
After taking computers over, it displayed messages demanding a payment of $300 (£230) in virtual currency Bitcoin to unlock files and return them to the user.
The UK security researcher known as "MalwareTech", who helped to limit the ransomware attack, predicted "another one coming... quite likely on Monday".
MalwareTech, who wants to remain anonymous, was hailed as an "accidental hero" after registering a domain name to track the spread of the virus, which actually ended up halting it.
The 22-year-old told the BBC it was very important for people to patch their systems as soon as possible.