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 Post subject: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 11:58 pm 
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With the first wave of this attack under control, on the whole everyone was pretty lucky. Authorities are warning that a second wave could happen as workers who had logged off on Friday login again on Monday. As consumers are we secure from this attack?

Worldwide Cyberattack-2nd Wave

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 12:14 am 
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If you are running Windows 10 you should not need to worry as 10 is not a target according to the article that you posted.

I can't prove but it is my understanding that Microsoft released an update ages ago to prevent this on previous versions of Windows.

I could be wrong but I'm not at all concerned as I run Defender plus MBAM Pro. Also my system is fully updated and running Windows 10 which is supposidly not a target. The fact that Windows 10 is not supposed to be a target suggests that the talk about Windows 10's security possibly being true.

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 7:32 am 
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The latest thinking (researchers are actively studying this attack) is that the spread is happening between vulnerable computers and servers. So, if the PC or server running an older OS is patched, it's protected from this infection. There is no indication that this is being spread via "traditional" avenues such as infected email attachments.
"Safe" is relative, of course.
-Make sure that all important/critical updates, including service packs for the operating system and programs are installed from Microsoft Update (Windows Update).
-Make sure that Windows Automatic Updates are set to at least notify, but the preferred setting is to download and install automatically. If you update manually, be sure to update as soon as possible after being notified of available updates.
-Make sure that installed applications, especially Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, and Java are at their latest versions. Many vendors are regularly updating and patching for security holes.
-Never click through links from unknown sources and use caution even if they are from a "trusted" source.
-Never open unsolicited email attachments.
-Practice safe web browsing.

And, be sure to have a comprehensive backup strategy. Recovering from a ransomware infection (removing encryption of files) is almost impossible -- recovery from a clean backup is the quickest.

-steve

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 8:49 am 
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Jay, be cautious. Windows Defender was recently attacked by a clever email, that when Windows Defender scanned it, it was infected. To Microsofts credit it was patched in 2 days. Also I've done extensive testing on MBAM3 against a lot of live malware. It's good, but not good enough I'd totally rely on it. In fact it's not on my system now, as there just are better ways to protect


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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 3:07 pm 
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sboots wrote:
The latest thinking (researchers are actively studying this attack) is that the spread is happening between vulnerable computers and servers. So, if the PC or server running an older OS is patched, it's protected from this infection. There is no indication that this is being spread via "traditional" avenues such as infected email attachments.
"Safe" is relative, of course.
-Make sure that all important/critical updates, including service packs for the operating system and programs are installed from Microsoft Update (Windows Update).
-Make sure that Windows Automatic Updates are set to at least notify, but the preferred setting is to download and install automatically. If you update manually, be sure to update as soon as possible after being notified of available updates.
-Make sure that installed applications, especially Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, and Java are at their latest versions. Many vendors are regularly updating and patching for security holes.
-Never click through links from unknown sources and use caution even if they are from a "trusted" source.
-Never open unsolicited email attachments.
-Practice safe web browsing.

And, be sure to have a comprehensive backup strategy. Recovering from a ransomware infection (removing encryption of files) is almost impossible -- recovery from a clean backup is the quickest.

-steve

Thanks for the advice Steve. I would think having a clean backup in reserve is a must in this day and age.

These kind of cyber attacks where your personal data is held for ransom are doubly dangerous because besides your data being held you don't know if the hacker has made copies of it.

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 3:34 pm 
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Yes, backup is a must. But unlike what I recommended years ago, detach or turn off your external drive after each backup completes. Which means no more "set it and forget it" - a huge inconvenience, but a necessity now.

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 5:03 pm 
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Doesn't have to be that way Patty. First I have internal drives on my Desktops so I can run 1 hourly incrementals. That is critical for me as the data changes dramatically during the day. So then the object is to protect those drives so only programs you allow can write to them. I am set up this way and it's not hard, and it's been tested against live malware.


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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 8:22 pm 
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I find myself agreeing with both Patty and Peter at the same time.

I have a schedule where I do nightly backups with Acronis to an internal drive and backups with Windows imaging three time a week. However I also have SATA data and power cables extended out the back of my box on which I throw a hard drive to do an external image with both Acronis and Windows once a week or whenever I get around to doing so. This way I have my daily images but if an infection were to corrupt the internal I have the external as a fallback. Since I have the SATA cables out the back of the box the external images are done as quickly as on the internal. Of course this is only viable on a tower as it could not really be done on a laptop.

I DO have a base image for my laptop but don't normally do images on that machine as it is synced with my main system as to data so I can't really lose anything that I can't restore the base image and just sync again from my main system to totally recover.

Of course different solutions work for different people but the above works well for me. :) LOL! Of course the main goal is to never get infected but one can never be 100% sure that this cannot happen. :mrgreen: Then again system images are not JUST to recover from infections. Shoot, I honestly cannot remember ever needing to restore an image due to an infection but then there are also hard drive failures and such that still demand that one have an image backup. In any case, as Acdadia would say..., backup, BackUp, BACKUP! ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 11:19 pm 
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Well my biggest use of back software is in many ways a snapshoting approach. If I want to test a piece of software, I will take a quick incremental which generally takes between 50 seconds to a minute in a half. If I don't want to keep it, a restore generally will take about a minute and a half, an that way any trace is gone. On my business machine I do take hourly incrementals, so if something goes a miss during the day, I can quickly back up in time and fine the problem.


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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 9:44 am 
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Peter2150 wrote:
Doesn't have to be that way Patty. First I have internal drives on my Desktops so I can run 1 hourly incrementals. That is critical for me as the data changes dramatically during the day. So then the object is to protect those drives so only programs you allow can write to them. I am set up this way and it's not hard, and it's been tested against live malware.


Do we really have to go through this litany again Peter? Since we are in General Computing here and not in an Advanced forum, we are not addressing the advanced user, but the novice user, who is not going to use your advanced backup strategy. I'm not going to move the thread, however, as this is a topic that is of interest to all users. Please keep it that way. If you'd like to start an advanced backup strategy thread in an advanced forum, I'd welcome that.

Jay, same goes for you.

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 Post subject: Re: Global Cyber Attack
 Post Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 10:26 am 
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Peter and Jay go sit in the corner. You don't get any pudding today. :rofl2:

If you use your machines for business purposes I can understand employing a strategy similar to Peter. For the typical home user like myself, I would think 3 or 4 backups are enough. A couple can be automated but the last one should be a manual backup chosen at a time of your own discretion.

Continuing on with the hacking aspect of this topic, the new Pirates of the Caribbean 5 movie was just hacked and being held for ransom. Here are a couple links.

USA Today - Pirates 5

TheGuardian - Pirates 5

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