Petya, the umpteenth Wannacry case

Yesterday the Petya alert went off again. Yes, we say again, and not for the second time after Wannacry, because there have been hundreds of ransomware attacks... many years ago, by the way. And we are sure that there will be more, so we are determined to continue to inform and educate, from our privileged position at the forefront of the sector, with humility and constant work.

The new attack is called Petya and appears to exploit a similar vulnerability to the previous popular ransomware mentioned at the beginning of this post. The virus in question affects Windows systems and encrypts the operating system or hard drive for a ransom of $300 in bitcoins. It is also known to exploit the Office vulnerability CVE-2017-0199, and Microsoft MS 17-010 which, once infected, can spread to other systems connected to the same network.

In order to stay protected, it is our job to remind you of the necessary and minimum measures you should always take to avoid becoming a victim of Cryptolocker or any other computer virus:

• Practice safe browsing and encourage all employees to do the same. Using updated tools and browser extensions is key.
• Connect via secure protocols for all administrative access from outside the organisation.
• Activate the display of file extensions.
• Update your operating system and any security solutions, and activate your personal/company firewall.
• Disable macros in Microsoft Office documents and similar applications.

We would like to emphasise that with a proactive management such as that offered by the technical team at SW Hosting, you can forget about these worries and devote yourself entirely to your business, without having to spend more than the necessary time reading our reports and news about it.

If you would like more information or advice on how to improve your infrastructure, please contact us! ;)

Kind regards,

SW Hosting Team