Thursday, May 18, 2017

Could The Ransomware Cyber Attacks Trigger A Malware Apocalypse?



Given that it was originally revealed as an NSA creation by Edward Snowden’s whistle-blowing, could the recent WannaCry Ransomware cyber attacks someday trigger a malware apocalypse? 

By: Ringo Bones

The so-called “Zombie Apocalypse” might have been only a product of Hollywood, but the recent Ransomware malware attacks is not only real but painfully tangible for us who have grown dependent to the global internet infrastructure. The WannaCry Ransomware cyber attacks started back in May 12, 2017 and traced to be triggered in the Hong Kong – Singapore time zone in the South-East Asian region and then spread to over 150 countries. The worst-hit countries were reported to be Russia, Ukraine, India and Taiwan. It eventually infected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries but got press notice only after the malware affected Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) and scores of children’s hospitals in the UK. 

The WannaCry Ransomware was found to specifically infect systems that have not been updated with the most recent security updates – especially the one issued by Microsoft back in March 14, 2017. The Ransomware malware also managed to scare the pants off of conspiracy theorists after I.T. experts found out that it uses the EternalBlue Exploit developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as revealed by the whistle-blower Edward Snowden. 

It got the moniker “Ransomware” after the NSA-developed malware got into the hands of criminal hackers who extorted money to computer system owners affected by their malware attack. They usually ask for 500 to 600 U.S. dollars worth in bitcoins to restore their computer systems into full working order. Sadly, there are variants of the Ransomware malware that doesn’t have the kill-switch that can be turned off by the criminal hackers after you pay then the required bitcoin funds.

1 comment:

Mischa said...

Malware Apocalypse - an event when malware can't be stopped by existing information technology technicians that the only way to regain control of the internet is to erase all existing data and start form scratch? Holy Jesus Hitler Christ, Batman!!!