For many amongst us, especially the patch addicts, attacks like WannaCry and NotPetya are something we read about that happen to someone else. We have a quick panic, check our patching status, remediate where necessary and continue to look for Indicators of Compromise and share ‘lessons learnt’, today’s equivalent of a School Report for them upstairs. Life moves on.
We are probably lulling ourselves into a monster false state of security.
When the NotPetya Ransom/DeleteWare struck in June this year you will recall that one of the early victims was the giant shipping company Maersk which announced that its global operations were significantly disrupted.
Now that the dust has settled, Maersk’s management has put a number on the cost of that disruption – a massive $300 Meelion . Now we all know that Maersk is a massive company and this amount of disruption will be like a drop in the oceans in which they sail, however we should all take this as a wake-up call.
So far we have only seen large organisations reporting massive impact of these malware attacks (like the $100 Meelion of Reckitt Benckiser), although here at ITC towers we have heard of a number of data trading outfits that were put to the sword in a ‘thumbs down’ permanent manner by recent outbreaks.
The moral of the story is our usual, now boring advice – take backups, test backups, stay patched, stay vigilant, have a plan for the inevitable, which is predicated on not paying any ransoms, test the plan. Do this because, as sure as a very sure thing, there are more attacks incoming, please don’t let them take your business down.
If this seems like a lot of work and hassle, spare a thought for the IT security team at Game Of Thrones owners HBO. In the recent past, they have had to deal with episodes of GoT being leaked, 1.5 terabytes of data being stolen, including the personal details of celebrities, another round of unaired episodes leaked (this time by internal FUBAR admin), and now the hacking of HBO social media accounts. We feel their pain. Our good friend Graham Cluley has covered this in detail here, well worth a read.
In our now to be regular Marcuswatch, Marcus Hutchings (WannaCry kill-switch supremo) has pleaded Not Guilty to selling or creating the Kronos banking trojan. Updates as and when they arrive.
Finally, if it was one of you guys who hijacked the Microsoft Bing beach backdrop by drawing the obvious in the sand on holiday, we salute you.
If you would like to discuss how ITC could help you avoid becoming a victim of malware, you were the sand graffiti artist, or have any other security concerns, please contact us at: [email protected] or call 020 7517 3900.
