WannaCry Ransomware

Well, I hope you made it safely through the day.  Tens of thousands of Windows users in the US didn't.

Here’s what we now know. We are finally getting more information on how the WannaCry virus attacks and how it spreads.

The Bad News: The WannaCry attack has hit the US pretty hard (see the attached map). World-wide there have been 102,000 new infections in the last 24 hours. (you can see the latest here: https://intel.malwaretech.com/botnet/wcrypt/?t=24h&bid=all).  Throughout the day the rate of infection was accelerating. If your Windows PC’s are older, like Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, your risk is dramatically higher.

The Good News: For most businesses I think the worst is over. Most business-grade firewalls that are maintained, updated and have current subscriptions are now blocking the attack. Also, enterprise grade anti-virus also seems to be effective.

That’s great at work but what about outside the office? Less protected networks (like your home, coffee shop, or some offices) may not be so safe. It’s imperative you run a good, quality anti-virus software (read not free). Our research shows that Norton has reported that they can stop WannaCry. I can’t speak for other vendors at this point.

We’ll be hearing about this for a while I’m sure. The manhunt is on for the bad guys (I wouldn’t bet on them being caught).

Still, use common sense when visiting unknown websites and opening unknown, suspicious emails. Keep in mind that there is always a risk, we just want to control and minimize it.

There’s Good News for Fairoaks IT Clients

Remember how we insisted that you implement our security protocols?  Your network is safe.

If you are a client of ours, we use a 3-layer perimeter security around your network. Our research shows that 2 of the 3 layers are effectively blocking this attack. Specifically, those are the firewall subscription (SonicWall) combined with the #1 rated anti-virus (Symantec Enterprise) both of which are deployed at your company.

Outside the office your company laptop will still have our anti-virus, but you won’t have the additional layer of protection of the company firewall. So, exercise caution when opening unknown emails and visiting unknown websites outside the office.

We Want to Help

Lastly, the technological barriers built around most business networks are getting pretty good. So, the bad guys have started targeting the soft spot: employees. studies by IBM show that 95% of all data breaches at companies are caused by employees and the vast majority are done inadvertently.

We at Fairoaks IT care about our clients and we’re trying to do something about that. For all our clients, we are offering cyber security training for all your employees free of charge to you. We are doing this because our mission is to help you protect and grow your business. Call us at 508-543-5540 and we’ll get the ball rolling.

Tom Crossley
508-543-5540