NSD Hackers Group

28/09/2017

Your computer could be infected without you knowing it: Here's how to find out.

Until you become the target of data theft, a malware attack is only what you read about in the news. Yet there is a big possibility that malware keeps hiding in your system for a long time without you being aware of it. Theft of data or money is not always a sudden event; it can be a long process.

While smartphones are considered more vulnerable to malware, even computers are not totally safe. With mass malware attacks becoming common, you should watch out for suspicious activity on your computer that you might ignore as random malfunction. You start your computer and it takes forever. Your internet runs morbidly slow. Your programs are taking ages to respond. When you open your browser, unexpected pop-ups appear. Any of these routine troubles could be a sign of malware infection.

28/09/2017

07/09/2017

DON'T FALL PREY: Ransomware attacks - fight back

Ransomware attacks are becoming a regular occurrence. Hackers lock computers and networks using file encryption software and demand payment to release the data. The attack typically enters through a phishing email and then spreads to other machines on the same network.

Better Business Bureau and the National Cyber Security Alliance suggest the following:

• Back up your most important files regularly. Backup activity should be diversified, so that the failure of any single point won’t lead to the irreversible loss of data. Store one copy in the cloud, resorting to services like Dropbox, and the other on offline physical media, such as a portable HDD.

• Set read/write permissions, so that the files cannot be modified or erased. Additionally, check to make sure your backup methods are working properly on occasion.

• Never click on links from anyone you don’t know. If you think you know the sender, be cautious about clicking on email links. When in doubt, delete it. Be especially wary of messages requiring you to act quickly, or asking for personal information.

• Keep clean machines: Update critical software as soon as patches or new operating system versions are available. This includes mobile and other internet-connected devices.

• Use strong authentication: Requiring more than a username and password to access accounts, especially critical networks, to prevent access through stolen or hacked credentials.

• Make better passwords: In cases where passwords are still used, require long, strong and unique passwords to better harden accounts against intrusions.

26/08/2017

Spammers misused WannaCry fear to market fraudulent data-protection services

One of the main trends in the past three months is the number of mass mailings targeted at corporate networks.
As the fear of the WannaCry ransomware epidemic set in, cyber criminals sent out spam and phishing emails offering users different services to fight against the epidemics, noted Kaspersky Lab's "Spam and phishing in Q2 2017" report.

The WannaCry ransomware attack affected more than 200,000 computers across the globe, resulting in massive panic, and spammers instantly capitalised on the opportunity. Researchers detected a large amount of messages offering services such as protection from WannaCry attacks, data recovery, and, moreover, educational workshops and courses for users.

In addition, spammers successfully implemented a traditional scheme of fraudulent offers to install software updates on affected computers. However, links were redirecting users to phishing pages, where the personal data of victims would have been stolen.

One of the main trends in the past three months is the number of mass mailings targeted at corporate networks. Based on Kaspersky Lab research, these have expanded since the beginning of the year. Spammers began to widely disguise malicious mailings as corporate dialogues, by using the identities of corporate mail services, including real signatures, logos and even banking information.

In archives attached to the email, cybercriminals sent out exploit packages targeted at stealing FTP, email and other passwords. Kaspersky Lab experts highlight that most attacks on the corporate sector have financial goals.

Further, in the second quarter of the year researchers detected a growth in number of mass mailings with malicious Trojans, sent on behalf of international delivery services. Spammers were sending shipping reports with information about non-existent parcel deliveries.

With the aim to infect computers or to steal personal credentials, criminals were found spreading download links with malware, including the banking Trojan Emotet, which was first detected back in 2014. Overall, the volume of malicious mass mailings has increased by 17 percent, according to the new Kaspersky Lab report.

"During the second quarter of the year, we have seen that the main trends in spam and phishing attacks have continued to grow. The use of WannaCry in mass mailings proves that cybercriminals are very attentive and reactive to international events. Moreover, cybercriminals have started to focus more on the B2B sector, seeing it as lucrative. We expect this tendency will continue to grow, and the overall amount of corporate attacks and their variety will expand", said Darya Gudkova, Spam Analyst Expert at Kaspersky Lab.

"Today, effectiveness depends on the flexibility and reliability of the self-learning systems created by experts. And success goes to those able to provide a combination of the mathematical abilities of man, and complex infrastructure that permits developing new algorithms; And we call that combination Humachine Intelligence - a fusion of three fundamental things: big data, machine learning, and our analysts' expertise," added Altaf Halde, Managing Director- South Asia, Kaspersky Lab.

19/08/2017

New Set of Ransomware is Threatening Everyone’s Cyber Security

For years, security experts have been working extra hard to fight off cyber criminals and their often vicious attacks–one of which is spreading ransomware to extort money from their victims.

19/06/2017

Currently, the most widely-used storage device is the Hard Disk Drive (HDD), but its popularity is rapidly declining.

Digital Data Storage is Undergoing Mind-Boggling Growth -- we considered the mind-boggling growth of electronic data, which exceeded 10,000 exabytes or 10 zettabytes in 2016. By 2020, the volume of data is estimated to surpass 50 zettabytes. It's worth mentioning that there is only one prefix left, the "yotta," which was established at the 19th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1991, before we run out of prefixes.

This follow-up column is co-authored by Ben Whitehead, who is a storage product specialist at Mentor Graphics. In this column we will discuss the evolution of data storage technologies and introduce the two predominant current and alternative storage technologies: the hard disc drive (HDD) and the solid state drive (SSD). Following this introduction, the focus of this column will be the HDD, its functions, and associated design verification methodology. In a future column, we will concentrate on the SSD, concluding with trends in data storage for the foreseeable future.

Introduction

The history of electronic data storage evolved hand-in-hand with that of the computer. One could not exist without the other. After all, a computer needs storage to hold programs and data.

From the perspective of storage, programs and data are two sides of the same coin. They consist of strings of binary numbers that only computers can make sense of. Depending on how they are used, the storage requirements are rather different. When programs and data are in use concurrently, the media supporting them is called "main memory" or "primary memory" or just "memory." Conversely, when they are preserved for future use, the media supporting them is called "secondary memory" or just "storage."

Memory characteristics include fast data storing/retrieving capability, limited capacity, and higher cost compared to storage. On the other hand, storage characteristics comprise significantly larger capacity, but slower data storing/retrieving speed and lower cost than memory. Basically, storage holds far larger amounts of data at lesser cost per byte than memory. Typically, storage is two orders of magnitude less expensive than memory.

Unlike memory, storage can further be classified as online or offline. Image shows the main characteristics of memory and storage.

The technologies devised for implementing memory and storage that have evolved over time are remarkable examples of human ingenuity. Inventors have exploited mechanical, electromagnetic, electrostatic, electrical, optical, and semiconductor properties. A non-exhaustive list of memory/storage media includes: punched paper cards; punched paper tapes; delay lines (magnetostrictive wires or mercury delay lines); electrostatic memory tubes; charged capacitors; magnetic drums, tapes, cores, and discs; optical discs, and semiconductor chips. Some were very short-lived (e.g., electrostatic memory tubes), while others (e.g., magnetic cores) lasted for a few decades before being retired.

Today, memory is universally implemented using semiconductor chips. By comparison. storage is in the middle of a historical transition from magnetic discs to semiconductors, with the latter rapidly expanding and replacing their magnetic disc counterparts.

Progressively, memory and storage capacity grew from a few bytes to kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes. Today, the capacity of a storage device -- even on a home computer -- is often measured in terabytes.

Storage Devices

Storage devices encompass two parts: the media that stores the data and the controller that acts as a "traffic cop," supervising the flow of binary data in and out of the storage cells. The controller is the brain of a storage device. A poorly designed controller can quickly generate traffic congestion and slow down the computer's operations.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

At the time of this writing, the most popular storage device is the Hard Disk Drive (HDD), but its popularity is rapidly declining. The HDD has been around for three decades or so. Thirty years ago, there were many suppliers of hard drives. Over time, the industry saw massive consolidation that led to a virtual monopoly. Today, three big storage vendors survive: Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital, all of whom evolved through acquisitions of dozens of former big players, such as Conner Peripherals, Maxtor, and many others. Emblematic of this trend is the last acquisition of HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies). Regulators split its products into two buckets: the 2.5-inch drives went to Toshiba, while the 3.5-inch drives went to Western Digital.

The three big companies own all the patents, the clean room technology, manufacturing robots, and so on. Basically, they monopolize the HDD industry. One could not acquire another company in the hard disk drive business -- not that any still exist -- without triggering the involvement of the regulators.

The main reason for this state of affairs is the enormous entry barrier that prevents small players from throwing in their hats. The money and engineering efforts required to create a modern HDD business are massive.

10/06/2017

Esskay Data recovery a new branch of Esskay Compuservices established to explore and increase compan

02/06/2017

How to prepare your businesses for the next ransomware attack

Ransomware can compromise your network when you least expect it. Recently, more than 75 countries around the world were impacted by the WannaCry (Wanna, WannaCrypt, Wcry) ransomware worm. The impact was far reaching, affecting thousands of organizations across the globe.

WannaCry is just one of many strains of ransomware where the malware encrypts files on a system’s hard drive using an unbreakable key, and this is decrypted by the attacker once a ransom is paid, typically by online currency, such as Bitcoin.

Most ransomware is delivered via email using payloads designed to compel the person receiving the e-mail to click on a link. The next most common way are downloads delivered by simply viewing an HTML version of a message or by visiting a website that has been compromised.

Steps to protect your business

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the “Cybersecurity Framework.” This document can be used to frame up your organization’s strategic cybersecurity plan. It should be noted that this is not a recipe book; it is designed to guide the discussion and development of a plan primarily because organizations have different assets, risks and risk tolerances.

Importance of patching

Patching is the process of applying updates to operating system and/or application software to fix vulnerabilities that have been identified. Had the organizations hit with the WannaCry ransomware applied the patch released by Microsoft in mid-March, they may not have been impacted by this vulnerability. Ensure your organization has an effective patching program including evaluation of zero-day critical patching.

Back up your data

The best approach to recover from a ransomware attack like WannaCry is to restore maliciously encrypted files from back-ups. Backups should include multiple days or versions in case the most recent backup is also infected.

In addition, backups should not be stored on a mapped drive or disk mount. If they are online and accessible from a maliciously encrypted device, they can also be maliciously encrypted.

Many companies are either partially or completely reliant on internet-based (cloud-based) applications. It is important to understand the approach used by your cloud vendor to protect your data. Tools exist to backup certain cloud data, including Office 365 data, to ensure your data remains safe.

Finally, it’s important to periodically perform test restorations from backup files to ensure they are accurate and functional.
Limit access privileges

Use the concept of granting access to data to the extent, and only to the extent, someone needs to perform their duties. Serving as CEO of your company does not mean all data should be accessible. There are many recent examples of CEOs becoming ransomware targets and if the CEO of a company clicks on an email unintentionally installing the ransomware, all data, sometimes including the backups, becomes maliciously encrypted. If a company cannot restore from backup, the only choice is to pay the ransom, a practice that encourages repeated attacks. Carefully limit who has access to folders and data.

Maintain layers of security

Many businesses employ a traditional layered approach to protect them from cyber threats. Typically, this means employing a firewall, anti-virus program and web filtering. These continue to be useful deterrents, but the bad guys have devised ways around these tools so it is important to consider new tools.

One new class of tools to consider is called advanced threat protection. These tools are designed to add protections that go beyond the traditional tools.

For instance, advanced threat protection for email scans attachments and the email itself before it hits your systems by test reading and opening attachments in a “sand box” to see if they contain a malicious payload. If they do, they are removed and the email is quarantined. If they are OK, the email is passed through to the end-user.

Another tool blocks ransomware software from contacting the source server that provides the encryption key. These types of tools try to break the process of encryption. In the specific case of the WannaCry virus, an unregistered domain was embedded in the virus. Once the WannaCry virus was registered by a security analyst in the UK, the virus was contained.

Stay informed

Hopefully, your business avoided being impacted by the WannaCry ransomware virus. Following the steps above can reduce the chance that your business is impacted by cyber risks.

16/05/2017

Can personal finances be affected? Will the attackers be caught? And other questions.

15/05/2017

Massive Ransomeware attack...Total 74 countries affected...Please do not open any email which has attachments with *"tasksche.exe"* file. Please send this important message to all your computer users,Please do like and share

11/05/2017

What (not) to do when you’ve lost data

1. Don’t panic

Losing data is stressful, no matter what the situation. In times of panic we often tend to make irrational or uninformed decisions, which can be fatal in terms of successful data recovery. Take a moment to understand what has happened before you take any further action.

2. Use your device further

If you suspect you have lost data do not use your device further, in any capacity. Even seemingly simple tasks like checking emails, browsing the internet or looking through your computer files is writing more information to your device and potentially overwriting the very files you have lost.

3. CHKDSK

Using CHKSDK is quite like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut – it will do everything it can to get your system running properly but it will end up destroying any files that get it its way. It may be tempting to try it, but it is almost always best not to use this tool.

4. DIY methods

When you’ve lost data, it’s very tempting to take matters into your own hands and attempt to do something yourself. While it might seem like a good idea at the time, DIY methods can often lead to further accidental damage and even permanent data loss. Instead of using DIY methods try contacting your IT specialist or reputable data recovery specialist first – a good provider will give you all of the options based on the situation and advise if it is safe for you to try DIY software methods.

5. Open your hard drive

Last but not least, you should never attempt to open your device yourself. Unless you are an experienced data recovery specialist in a cleanroom environment, you are almost always going to cause more damage, no matter how careful you are. For spinning hard drives, even microscopic dust particles can have a catastrophic effect on your device and can destroy data that could have been saved by a professional. Like many DIY methods, it’s tempting to try them, but this is something you should always leave for the specialists.

11/05/2017

What to do when you’ve lost data

1. Stop what you are doing
Further use of your device could make the situation worse and render your data permanently irrecoverable. It’s advisable therefore to safely discontinue using your device in any capacity. What’s more, in the cases of fire and flood damage you’ll want to minimise any potential risk to yourself and your data by stopping what you are doing.

2. Keep calm and make notes
Assess the circumstances and gain an understanding of what happened. Having a good idea of what went wrong is essential to deciding your next course of action. What were you doing when the data loss happened? Did you hear any unusual noises or smell burning? Did you see anything out of the ordinary? No matter how simple the situation may seem, make as many notes as you can so you can refer back to them later. What is the total data capacity of your device? What kind of files do you think are missing?

3. Check for backups
If you’ve got an external backup drive, use a separate computer to check it for any backups of files you think you may have lost. This may sound like an obvious one, but it’s very important – you may find that you don’t need to take any further action if you’ve been regularly backing up your device to another hard drive or to the cloud.

4. Notify a specialist
If you can’t find a backup, notify your IT department, IT service provider, or a data recovery specialist. Those notes you made will come in handy here – make sure you relay all of the information you gathered. Your chosen expert will then have everything they need to make an informed decision about your situation and advise on next steps.

5. Package your device properly
If you need to send off your device to a data recovery specialist, make sure you package it well and use a reputable recorded delivery service, or deliver it by hand yourself. Your chosen provider should give you all of the information you need to package your device safely, but as a general rule for personal devices make sure that you use a box twice the size of the device. You should then pack your device with care, preferably putting it in an anti-static bag. If your device has suffered fire or water damage your data recovery provider can offer advice on any additional precautions to take.