Wanna Cry Ransomeware Alert

You have most likely heard about the new “wannacry” ransomware that has targeted numerous business, government and healthcare organizations in Europe.  This type of threat has been around for years and in the past week has become more aggressive.  This threat should not be taken lightly since its main purpose is to extort businesses for money after the virus destroys / encrypts all files on the computers and shared network files.

We have personally seen businesses and consumers lose their files, pictures, documents and emails.  Even having just one backup plan in place may not be enough, especially if the backup plan isn’t being checked often.  I have also seen the local backup jobs get encrypted as well.  This means that if the backup job is damaged, we cannot recover your data.

Since the only way to recover these files after the ransomware infection is by restoring the files from a backup, it is essential that your computers are being properly patched, updated, backed up and monitored.  If you are currently on one of our monitoring plans, the computer(s) we are monitoring are covered, however other workstations in the office may not be.  To be sure, just send us an email or give us a call (781) 686-1099.

We have plans that properly update & secure personal computers, workstations and servers.  If you are concerned about the safety of your data, you should act quickly to secure your computers and networks.  It is important that you act now to update your systems and protect your data.

If you would like us to properly secure your files, computers and networks, just give us a call or fill out this form and we will get back to you shortly.

Here is an explanation of the infection and some safety tips from Microsoft:

Wanna Cry Ransomware:

A type of virus that infect computers, and then prevent the user from accessing the operating system, or encrypts all the data stored on the computer,
The user asks the ransom to pay a fixed amount of money, as opposed to decrypting files or allowing access again to the operating system.

Wanna Cry Ransomware Guidelines to stay safe :

• Be careful to click on harmful links in your emails.
• Be wary of visiting unsafe or unreliable sites.
• Never click on a link that you do not trust on a web page or access to Facebook or messaging applications such as WatSab and other applications.
• If you receive a message from your friend with a link, ask him before opening the link to confirm, (infected machines send random messages with links).
• Keep your files backed up regularly and periodically.
• Be aware of fraudulent e-mail messages that use names similar to popular services such as PayePal instead of PayPal or use popular service names without commas or excessive characters.
• Use anti virus and Always make have the last update.
• Make sure your windows have the last update close the gap.

Update 5/15/2017 : 

The entry of the virus to your device, which is dependent on a gap in the Windows system and the gap is present in all types of Windows is that the feature is open.

if you did not update your windows just turn off SMB .

Here is the Wikipedia link with information about this attack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WannaCry_ransomware_attack