What are your views on recent "WannaCry" ransomware attacks by the Shadow Brokers?


WannaCry Ransomware and the involvement of Shadow Brokers

Who wrote the ransomware is still unknown. You can’t give the blame “Shadow Brokers” for that matter.
If you really want to know about the RansomWare please check out the timeline of the events that happened since March 2017:
7th March, 2017:
WikiLeaks dumped some NSA hacking tools. Unfortunately, EternalBlue was one of them. NSA was using this exploit to hack vulnerable Windows Computers and they never informed MicroSoft regarding this. To protect users, WikiLeaks released the exploits in public so that MicroSoft is forced to release a patch to prevent this exploit. But it did not work very well, you know what is happening right now, right? Well, Mircosoft was very prompt to release a security patch for the exploit (EternalBlue) which is the heart of the WannaCry Ransomware. Despite the end of the support of Windows XP, Microsoft released the patch for XP, Vista and Windows 7. But not all enterprises updated their system hence still vulnerable to the attack.
8th April, 2017:
A Hacking group known as “Shadow Brokers” released some more hacking tools and exploits and most of them were “Zero-Day” exploits meaning they don’t have any bug fix just yet.
22th April, 2017:
Nasty peoples started doing nasty things with these tools. Some so called hackers started using these exploits and thousands of PC were infected by the malware, zero day tools and viruses.
9th May, 2017:
MircoSoft released patches for more than four Zero-Day exploits.
12th May, 2017:
WannaCry Ransomeware Hit globally affecting thousands of Corporate offices, Banks, Police departments, Hospitals.
Wannacry Ransomware - who to blame:
You can’t blame Microsoft for the wannacry ransomware attack. They already released the security patch. The most vulnerable OS is Windows XP which Mircosoft discouraged users to use now-a-days. They already have stopped giving any kind of support to XP. But still corporations and users are using Windows XP ignoring the warning.
This epidemic could be avoided if we users would have installed security updates once in a week . Because the vulnerability is already fixed and you just need to install the security patch.
WikiLeaks and NSA - the fight turned into a mess. Somebody took advantage of the exploit developed by NSA and exposed by WikiLeaks.
But you can protect your computer from this attack in simple way.
Few things you can do to avoid the WannaCry ransomware infecting your Windows Computer or servers:
  • Use a Good Antivirus / Internet Security, or Antimalware software. We recommend MalwareBytes antimalware.
  • Don’t open attachments sent by unknown users into your email inbox.
  • Update your Windows Computer as soon as possible.
  • Don’t download files from unknown source.
  • If you torrent a lot get a torrent VPN. Now VPN changes your IP address so in your local network if any PC is infected then it will search for connected IP range and as your IP is changed you will be safe.
  • Isolate the infected computer and don’t connect it with any LAN or WiFi to prevent spreading.
  • Disable SMB protocol
How to disable SMB protocol: