Be Prepared ! This Ransomware may come back again !Protect Your Systems, Before you get Hacked !

On May 12th 2017, a ransomware variant known as WanaCry is being spread on a massive scale around the world. The initial infection vector appear to be phishing e-mails;

Once a computer is infected it will attempt to infect other machines on the same network using a recently patched Windows vulnerability.

And it will start encrypting all the files in your system with the name "WanaCry" . and soon your whole system's files and folders will be encrypted and you will get a message like in the image below. To decrypt all your data, the Hackers are asking for Ransom amount, that has to be paid in Bitcoins.

Bitcoin addresses

https://blockchain.info/address/115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNXj6LrLn https://blockchain.info/address/12t9YDPgwueZ9NyMgw519p7AA8isjr6SMw https://blockchain.info/address/13AM4VW2dhxYgXeQepoHkHSQuy6NgaEb94

7 Easy Steps to Protect Yourself

Currently, there is no WannaCry decryption tool or any other solution available, so users are strongly advised to follow prevention measures in order to protect themselves.

1.Keep your system Up-to-date:

First of all, if you are using supported, but older versions of Windows operating system, keep your system up to date, or simply upgrade your system to Windows 10.

2.Using Unsupported Windows OS?

If you are using unsupported versions of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 or 2008, apply the emergency patch released by Microsoft today.

3.Enable Firewall:

Enable firewall, and if it is already there, modify your firewall configurations to block access to SMB ports over the network or the Internet. The protocol operates on TCP ports 137, 139, and 445, and over UDP ports 137 and 138.

4.Disable SMB:

Follow steps described by Microsoft to disable Server Message Block (SMB).

5.Keep your Antivirus software up-to-date:

Virus definitions have already been updated to protect against this latest threat.

6.Backup Regularly:

To always have a tight grip on all your important files and documents, keep a good backup routine in place that makes their copies to an external storage device that is not always connected to your PC.

7.Beware of Phishing:

Always be suspicious of uninvited documents sent an email and never click on links inside those documents unless verifying the source.

Here's a video of the same. You can check out, how it infects the system.

Update Links

Windows update MS17-010

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4013389/title

patch for Windows XP

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/

RDP or SMB protocol

https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/help/2696547/how-to-enable-and-disable-smbv1,-smbv2,-and-smbv3-in-windows-vista,-windows-server-2008,-windows-7,-windows-server-2008-r2,-windows-8,-and-windows-server-2012

If you have any queries or require any help to get rid of that, do comment . I can help you with. And if you find the information useful, do upvote.

Thanks