WANNACRY OR WANNACRYPT RANSOMWARE ATTACKS

Here’s How to Protect Yourself From Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware, a decade-old form of malicious software that is often transmitted by email or web pop-ups, involves locking up people’s data and threatening to destroy it if a ransom is not paid.George Etheredge for The New York Times

A decade-old form of malicious software known as ransomware has been making headlines after cybercriminals hijacked hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

Ransomware, which is often transmitted by email or web pop-ups, involves locking up people’s data and threatening to destroy it if a ransom is not paid. The global cyberattack has affected 200,000 Windows computers in more than 150 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Britain.

The cybercriminals have generally targeted hospitals, academic institutions, blue-chip companies and businesses like movie theater chains. The attacks highlight the challenges that organizations face with consistently applying security safeguards on a large scale.

“Not only individuals, but even governments and big companies with so much to lose fail to secure their systems and train their employees about necessary security practices,” said Marty P. Kamden, a marketing executive for the private network service provider NordVPN. “Cautious online behavior would probably have prevented the malware from infecting the network in the first place.”

Update your software

Security experts believe the malware that spurred this global attack, called WannaCry, may have initially infected machines by getting people to download it through email. After that, the malicious code was able to easily travel to a broader network of computers that were linked together through the Windows file-sharing system. (Users of Macs or other non-Windows computers were not affected.)

The most disheartening revelation from the cyberattack was that there was a fix available for the ransomware before the attack. Microsoft, which makes Windows, released a patch for the WannaCry vulnerability eight weeks ago, said Chris Wysopal, the chief technology officer of Veracode, an application security company.

In other words, if people had simply stayed on top of security updates, their machines would not have been infected. “People kind of got complacent and not vigilant about updating their machines,” Mr. Wysopal said.

Consumers can remedy this by configuring their Windows machines to automatically install the latest software updates.

Even though WannaCry specifically targeted Windows machines, that does not mean Mac or Linux users are off the hook in the future. Other breeds of malware may infect various operating systems, so no matter which device you are using, you should regularly update your software to install the latest security enhancements.

Install antivirus software

In addition to keeping Windows up-to-date with the latest security enhancements, antivirus software can prevent malware from infecting your computer. Mr. Kamden of NordVPN said 30 percent of popular antivirus systems were capable of detecting and neutralizing the ransomware.

Of course, with antivirus software, the same principle applies: Make sure to keep the antivirus app up-to-date, too, so it blocks the latest emerging malware. Also, download antivirus apps only from reputable vendors like Kaspersky Lab, Bitdefender or Malwarebytes, Mr. Kamden said.

Be wary of suspicious emails and pop-ups

Security experts believe WannaCry may have initially infected machines via email attachments. The lesson: Avoid clicking links inside dubious emails, Mr. Kamden said.

How do you spot a fishy email? Look carefully at the email address of the sender to see if it is coming from a legitimate address. Also, look for obvious typos and grammatical errors in the body. Hover over hyperlinks (without clicking on them) inside emails to see whether they direct you to suspicious web pages. If an email appears to have come from your bank, credit card company or internet service provider, keep in mind that they will never ask for sensitive information like your password or social security number.

In addition, ransomware developers often use pop-up windows that advertise software products that remove malware. Do not click on anything through these pop-ups, then safely close the windows.

Create backups of your data

In the event that a hacker successfully hijacks your computer, you could rescue yourself with a backup of your data stored somewhere, like on a physical hard drive. That way, if a hacker locked down your computer, you could simply erase all the data from the machine and restore it from the backup.

In general, you should be creating a copy of your data in the first place, in case your computer fails or is lost. To be extra safe from hackers, after backing up your data onto an external drive, unplug the drive from the computer and put it away.

Create a security plan for your business

For larger businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees, applying security updates organizationwide can be difficult. If one employee’s machine lacks the latest security software, it can infect other machines across the company network.

Mr. Wysopal said businesses could learn from how WannaCry spread through the Windows file-sharing system by developing a strict schedule for when computers companywide should automatically install the latest software updates. Businesses should determine the best time to apply these security updates to office computers without interrupting productivity, he added.

Information technology professionals should also regularly educate and test employees on spotting suspicious emails, said Matt Ahrens, vice president of Crypsis, a cybersecurity firm.

What to do if already infected

If you are already a victim of ransomware, the first thing to do is disconnect your computer from the internet so it does not infect other machines. Then report the crime to law enforcement and seek help from a technology professional who specializes in data recovery to see what your options might be. If there are none, don’t lose hope: There may be new security tools to unlock your files in the future.

In some extreme cases, it might make sense to pay a ransom if you have no backups and the encrypted files are valuable, Mr. Wysopal said. But he added that with WannaCry, people definitely should not pay the ransom. That’s because the hackers are apparently overloaded with requests from victims asking for their data to be released — and many who have paid the ransom are not hearing back.

SOURCE : NYTIMES

LOOSING CONTACTS ON i PHONE

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THE ALL NEW IOS 10 MAY WIPE OUT FEW OF YOUR CONTACTS 

This is quite true as a lot of  people are complaining about this. This could be because of the upgrading process as it seems like it glitches up with an option related to contacts i.e sync with an mail address or else deleting a particular account. The following instructions might help you to sort this out, if you lucky enough to completely follow these.

 

  1. The first thing first is to recognize the cause as what might be triggering this to happen. Now this could be because of any option unchecked in the iphone settings or else a mail account loop. The best thing you could do is go to your browser and check out all the synced mail accounts contacts so as to discover which mail account holds your contacts which are lost eventually this might solve half of your problems as for example if

I CLOUD         YAHOO             OUTLOOK

 

These are the mail accounts you have synced with your iphone then assume outlook holds all your lost contacts then outlook options are changed or holds responsibility for this loss.

The best part is your contacts are available and now you just have to sync them again with your iphone. In whole I have manged to compile a complete set of instructions for everyone as following these would definitely solve all your contacts related issues.

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

 

THE EARLIER WAY IS TO CHECK WHETHER YOU HAVE LOGGED IN  TO YOUR iCLOUD ACCOUNT IN SETTING IF SO THEN WHETHER THE CONTACTS OPTION IS CHECKED OR UN-CHECKED. IF THIS IS ALL GOOD THEN MOVE ON TO THE BELOW OPTIONS.

  • ON YOUR iPHONE GO TO SETTING >>>MAIL>>>ACCOUNT>>>NOW ONE BY ONE SELECT EACH MAIL ACCOUNT DISPLAYED THERE AND UN-CHECK THE CONTACTS OPTION TO OFF THIS WOULD ASK TO DELETE THE CONTACTS OF KEEP ON iPHONE YOU CAN SELECT ANY OF THESE OPTIONS AS IT WILL NOT EFFECT YOUR CONTACTS EITHER WAY.
  • NOW, AGAIN REPEAT THE STEP BY CHECKING IT AGAIN AND CLICKING ON MERGE WHEN ASKED BY YOUR PHONE. THIS IS THE FIRST STEP AND MIGHT SOLVE ALL YOUR ISSUES BUT JUST DON’T FORGET TO REPEAT THESE STEPS FOR ALL THE MAIL ACCOUNTS.

 

 

  • IF YOUR CONTACTS ARE STILL NOT SYNCED THEN YOU MIGHT WANT TO GO TO EACH AND EVERY MAIL ACCOUNT USING A PC  AND CHECK WITH WHICH ACCOUNT DOES THE CONTACTS LOST ARE AVAILABLE  AND THEN FOLLOW THE BELOW INSTRUCTIONS

 

  • ON YOUR iPHONE GO TO SETTINGS>>>CONTACTS>>>DEFAULT ACCOUNT>>> NOW SEE WHETHER HERE iCLOUD IS SELECTED OR NOT IF NOT THEN SELECT iCLOUD AND YOUR WOULD CERTAINLY NOTICE THE LOADING SIGN ON TOP DISPLAYING THE BACK-END CONTACTS RESTORING PROCESS.

 

THIS IS THE LAST STEP AND YOUR PROBLEM IS SOLVED. EVEN IF IT DOESN’T YOU MIGHT WANT TO COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW.

 

THANK YOU.

WINDOWS 8/8.1/10 Cannot connect to this network issue.

WINDOWS 8/8.1/10 Cannot connect to this network issue.

Windows cannot connect to this network

If you are experiencing this error while connecting to a WiFi router ,modem or your mobiles personal hotspot ,then you are in deep trouble as the problem is still not solvable because of the fact that this issue actually generates after updating the windows. That means the problem occur’s because you upgraded your windows and it actually re-writes the network settings or else some network parameters at the back-end. If your are lucky you might find it working by doing the below steps only if you get the following errors then the one mentioned in heading.

  • LIMITED INTERNET ACCESS

A simple solution to this problem is to reset your network wireless adapter i.e.

  1. Switch off the adapter and switch it on again.
  2. Restart your PC.
  3. Remove the connection (FORGET NETWORK) by clicking on managing wifi option Note. this works only on windows 10.
  4. Reinstall network adapter drivers by first uninstalling it from device manager and reinstalling it.

NOTE: THIS IS ONLY FOR THOSE CONNECTIONS WHICH SHOWS LIMITED INTERNET ACCESS

  • NETWORK DOESN’T SHOWS UP IN SEARCH
  1. If a device is plugged in ,it’s needed to be removed i.e a USB WiFi device or in laptops the adapter is needed to be switched off and on.
  2. Eventually this might solve the problem in most cases but if it doesn’t ,other way is to switch off your router ,modem ,or personal WAN i.e Phone(PERSONAL HOTSPOT )
  3. If both the above options doesn’t helps try to remove the previously saved network or else change the network name accessing your router or modem i.e FORGET CONNECTION and for changing name refer to router’s WIFI SSID option.
  4. Forget about command prompt in elevated form or running it as an admin because the above steps are relatively similar to what you do in command prompt ,but for those interest in cmd only can try these  too.

TYPE THESE COMMANDS IN CMD

ipconfig / release

ipconfig/ renew

and exit

with this restart the system.

 

IF YOU ARE LUCKY YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO ACCESS YOUR WIFI NETWORK OF ELSE DO A COMPLETE NEW INSTALLATION FOR THIS VERSION OF WINDOWS AS THERE IS NO OTHER SOLUTION TO THIS PARTICULAR PROBLEM FROM MICROSOFT.

ANY UPDATE ON THIS GLITCH WILL BE PUBLISHED FOR REFERENCES MEANWHILE ITS BETTER TO NOT STRUGGLE WITH THIS AND AT A SAFER CHOICE INSTALL A COMPLETELY NEW WINDOWS.

 

 

impossible Happend with me

This is my first post on wordpress hence I would like to dedicate this to my beloved dad who is not with us today but I know he must be watching us with the same love and affection he lived among us …… love you dad….

 

 

My dad chased monsters from the dark
He checked underneath my bed
And he could lift me with one arm
Way up over top of his head
He could loosen rusty bolts
With a quick turn of his wrist
He pulled splinters from his hand
And never even flinched.
In thirteen years I never saw him crying
But the day that grandpa died
I realized unsinkable ships sink
Unbreakable walls break
And soon d place of son and father were changed
It was actually a curious stage and I  was kind of teenage 
The loss I went through can never be fulfilled
The deeds which were earlier my needs
Were now just a desire to feed
Sometimes the things you think could never happen, happens just like that
Unbend-able steel bend,

if the fury of the wind has no end

I have learned to never underestimate the IMPOSSIBLE!!!

 

 

inspired by Joe Nichols.