Newsletter Archives

• The Ransomware Task Force’s advice needs work

  Posted on August 22, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  A few weeks ago, the Ransomware Task Force (RTF) released the Blueprint for Ransomware Defense.

  The RTF was created by the Institute for Security and Technology (IST) in April 2021 in response to the emerging national and economic security risk posed by ransomware.

  Unfortunately, I find the advice and information contained in the Blueprint centered too much on large enterprises and not enough on the broader audience it was supposedly targeting. Unquestionably, outages and stolen data for large enterprises can have a huge effect on large groups of people, but the Small Business Administration points out that there are 32 million small businesses — and we all can agree they have fewer resources to fend off attacks.

  From my perspective, something very big is missing: detection.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.34.0, 2022-08-22).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Ransomware, security

• Help for trouble with peer networking and ransomware protection

  Posted on March 21, 2022 at 02:44 CDT by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  In this week’s first reader-submitted question, a subscriber’s peer (serverless) network simply will not allow his three PCs to share files, despite there being no obvious flaws. Why won’t it work?

  In the second, a different subscriber wants to enable Windows’ excellent, built-in ransomware protection (via “Protected folders”) but is prevented from doing so by other elements of his setup. Here’s the fix!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.12.0, 2022-03-21).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList Anti-malware, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Ransomware, Windows networking

• Understanding the zero days

  Posted on March 7, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  What do attackers go after?

  If you take a look at the known, exploited vulnerability listing as put out by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, you’ll find that the list is long and confusing. Even if you cut it down to just Microsoft and Apple, it’s still a bit overwhelming, to say the least.

  I’m going to focus on two bugs, to showcase differences in how the attacks occur on Windows and Apple and what the attackers are going after.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.10.0 (2022-03-07).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Ransomware, Zero Day

• The other ransonware scam

  Posted on January 31, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  You can’t decrypt your way back to normal.

  In addition to all the other irons I have in the fire, I help moderate a group that assists information technology professionals in dealing with ransomware as well as other security issues.

  When people ask to join, we try to vet them as best as we can. The vast majority of people joining the group are consultants and firms in the “Managed Service Provider” category who assist small businesses with their technology needs. But there is a second group of people attempting to join, which I’m going to call “the other ransomware scammers.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.05.0 (2022-01-31).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Ransomware, scams, Tech Support Scams

• More on Win10’s Ransomware protection

  Posted on February 8, 2021 at 01:45 CST by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  More on Win10’s Ransomware protection

  By Fred Langa

  Many subscribers tried enabling this optional security enhancement, only to discover it can be hard to get going!

  There are at least five reasons why Ransomware protection — and other Win10 security features — might not be available on your PC.

  Here’s what they are, and what you can do about them.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.5.0 (2021-02-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Ransomware, security, Windows 10

• How small businesses are easy ransomware targets

  Posted on March 9, 2020 at 01:15 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ON SECURITY

  By Susan Bradley

  Yes, they really are out to get us. Recent trends in malicious attacks mean that small businesses need to be more vigilant than ever.

  As exploits rapidly evolve, we face the threat of falling behind in the battle to protect ourselves. On the latest front, simply keeping backups of our data isn’t enough.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.10.0 (2020-03-09).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cyber insurance, Ransomware, scams, small business

• New cyber attack is a ransomware worm

  Posted on June 27, 2017 at 15:00 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Details are still sketchy as to the nature of today’s cyber attack, but it is a ransomware worm from details currently available.

  However, what its actual nature of this threat is is still being discovered and debated, much like Wannacry’s was last month.

  The latest from @kaspersky researchers on #Petya: it’s actually #NotPetya pic.twitter.com/uTVBUul8Yt

  — Kaspersky Lab (@kaspersky) 27 June 2017

  @MrBrian posted about this on Code Red – security alerts – information and discussion topic page:
  Variant of Petya ransomware is spreading fast

  Windows Patches/Security Petya, Ransomware, Vulnerability

• ZDNet: Windows 10 S, the safest Windows yet, can be hacked

  Posted on June 24, 2017 at 12:01 CDT by PKCano • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft says ‘no known ransomware’ runs on Windows 10 S — so we tried to hack it

  By Zack Whittaker | June 24, 2017

  We enlisted a leading security researcher to test if Microsoft’s newest, locked-down version of Windows 10 is protected against all “known” kinds of ransomware, as the company claims.

  Microsoft claims “no known ransomware” runs on Windows 10 S, its newest, security-focused operating system.

  The software giant announced the version of Windows earlier this year as the flagship student-focused operating system to ship with its newest Surface Laptop. Microsoft touted the operating system as being less susceptible to ransomware because of its locked-down configuration — to the point where you can’t run any apps outside the protective walled garden of its app store. In order to get an app approved, it has to go through rigorous testing to ensure its integrity. That’s one of several mitigations that helps to protect the operating system to known file-encrypting malware.

  We wanted to see if such a bold claim could hold up.

  Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

  Read the full article on zdnet.com

  Other Ransomware, Win 10 S security, Windows 10 S

• Anti-Ransomware Software Overview Update

  Posted on May 23, 2017 at 16:28 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Martin Brinkmann has updated the ghacks.net Security overview, to 23 May 2017.

  “There are two types of Anti-Ransomware software programs: those that protect the system in real-time against incoming threats, and those that disinfect the system after a successful ransomware attack.”

  As well as reviewing named programs that act to prevent ransomware, a handy table compares the various paid and free software options.

  Decryption is also discussed, should you have the misfortune to not prevent an infection.

  Martin’s advice is worth repeating here:

  “As far as prevention is concerned, there is more that users can do, for instance making sure they run up to date security software, do back ups of important data and keep the backups detached from the system, or use common sense.”

   
  Take a look at Martin’s full article here.

  Other decryption, ghacks, Ransomware