NotPetya: How a Russian malware created the world's worst cyberattack ever

NotPetya malware spread like wildfire across the world, eating into every electronic equipment, computers, extracting data and demanding exorbitant amounts for recovery in form of Bitcoins.

Technology News: Imagine you wake up one day for work and realise that the IT hub in the office is acting fishy. All your colleagues, donning sharp suits, carrying compact laptops and tablets in one hand, a flask of coffee on the other, head to their desks for the day's operations to begin, only to find out that their files, both official and personal, are being "encrypted".

A daunting idea, isn't it? And what if these files in your C drive are mysteriously being repaired or, maybe in a more surreal way, you are being ordered to pay a sum of $300 worth of bitcoin to decrypt the files -- all this is not just a wicked idea, but this is what happened at the time when the most devastating cyberattack took place in today's history.

What is NotPetya Malware

"For the past four and a half years, Ukraine has been locked in a grinding, undeclared war with Russia that has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainians and displaced millions more. The conflict has also seen Ukraine become a scorched-earth testing ground for Russian cyberwar tactics. In 2015 and 2016, while the Kremlin-linked hackers known as Fancy Bear were busy breaking into the US Democratic National Committee’s servers, another group of agents known as Sandworm was hacking into dozens of Ukrainian governmental organisations and companies. They penetrated the networks of victims ranging from media outlets to railway firms, detonating logic bombs that destroyed terabytes of data."

In this conflict between the two nations, the Russian hackers, in June 2017 came out with one of the most devastating cybersecurity breaches to attack networks of victims via encrypted code, ranging from media outlets to railway firms, detonating logic bombs that destroyed terabytes of data. This idea of destruction gave birth to NotPetya, a much bigger threat to the world than the infamous Wannacry malware.

How to recognise NotPetya Malware

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News Source: BS

 

Bharatmala or Sagarmala? Ministries face turf issue in Rs 7-trn initiative

Experts feel that it is ideal to merge the projects within these two sectors.

Bharatmala Scheme : The Rs 7-trillion (Rs 7-lakh crore) Bharatmala initiative, an umbrella programme of the Union government, has some projects that have been completed and others that are already under the bidding process. For the shipping ministry, which had awarded the last-mile port connectivity projects under the Bharatmala scheme, it could mean that the credit of its labour would go to the ministry of road transport and highways.

A total of 94 port-related projects were identified under Sagarmala, of which 49 projects are now under the Bharatmala scheme and, hence, would come in the ambit of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the ministry of road transport and highways.

According to an official, the two ministries might work out a solution in order to deal with the overlap of projects and administrative jurisdiction. However, experts feel that it is ideal to merge the projects within these two sectors as there is one minister and it would lead to better synergy between the two ministries.

“The operation and maintenance of projects can be done under Bharatmala by the road ministry and NHAI, which will address the issue of overlap between the two schemes,” former shipping secretary Vishwapati Trivedi said.

In October 2017, the Union Cabinet cleared the Bharatmala project to construct 20,000 km of highways connecting western and eastern parts of the country at an estimated cost of Rs 7 trillion (Rs 7 lakh crore). In the first phase to be undertaken over three-five years, the project would cost Rs 5.5 trillion (Rs 5.5 lakh crore).

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Ransomware attack: Why do hackers want payments through bitcoins?

'WannaCry' - the ransomware, asked users to pay a $300 ransom in bitcoins

 

 

Latest News : The recent ransomware attack has renewed a long-running debate about the dangers of digital currency. For those who are not yet aware, a malicious malware attacked almost 150 countries. The concept of the attack was simple: Your computer gets infected with a virus that encrypts your files until you pay a ransom.

"WannaCry" - the ransomware, asked users to pay a $300 ransom in bitcoins. The ransom note indicates the payment amount will be doubled after three days. If payment is not made after seven days, the encrypted files will be deleted. Security experts warn there is no guarantee that access will be granted after payment. Some ransomware that encrypts files ups the stakes after a few days, demanding more money and threatening to delete files altogether.

 

Why do hackers prefer Bitcoin over other modes of payments?

• Of late, digital currency Bitcoin has emerged as a favourite tool for hackers.        Why is it a soft target? - When you pay something digitally, you use net banking, credit card or debit card. Now your information is attached to the card such as name, address, etc).
  However, the case is different with bitcoin. The transactions you make using the currency are completely anonymous. According to a NDTV report, whenever customers trade in bitcoin, a private key associated with their wallet is used to generate a bit of code. That code is publicly associated with customer transaction but with no personal identifying information.
  Thus, every transaction is recorded and securely signed in an open ledger that anyone can read and double-check.
  Experts say that one of the probable reasons why hackers chose bitcoin as a form of payment was this - It protects identity.
  Earlier, hackers used to ask for money from PayPal but due to stringent KYC (Know Your Customer) norms in PayPal, they have shifted to bitcoins.(read more...)

WannaCry attack: What happened to my computer and how do I recover files?

WannaCry encrypts data files and ask users to pay a $300 ransom in bitcoins

 

 

Breaking News :  WannaCry Attacks encrypts data files and ask users to pay a $300 ransom in bitcoins. The ransom note indicates the payment amount will be doubled after three days.

If payment is not made after seven days, the encrypted files will be deleted. A look at how best one can protect oneself from ransomware:

• New ransomware variants appear on a regular basis. Always keep your security software up-to-date to protect yourself against them
• Keep your OS and other software updated. Software updates will frequently include patches for newly discovered security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by ransomware attacker
• Email is one of the main infection methods. Be wary of unexpected emails, especially if they contain links and/or attachments
• Be extremely wary of any Microsoft Office email attachment that advises you to enable macros to view its content. Unless you are absolutely sure that this is a genuine email from a trusted source, do not enable macros; immediately delete the email instead
• Backing up important data is the single-most effective way of combating ransomware infections. Attackers have leverage over their victims by encrypting valuable files and leaving them inaccessible.
• Using cloud services could help mitigate ransomware infections, since many retain previous versions of files, allowing you to ‘roll back’ to the (read more...)