05/12/2017
This is long, but an extremely serious ransomeware attacking Microsoft Windows. I highly recommend you read the article at the link (I also read the articles they linked to in their own article.)
I received an email from Wordfence; it's their security I use for all my websites - trust them 110%.
What is ransomeware? Simply put, it's maleware; a program created to install a virus into your computer - it is SO ANNOYING! For instance, if you all of a sudden are getting pop-ups everywhere, or being redirected to a different site than you intended to access then somehow maleware has been installed on your computer. It can be a b!tc # to get off your computer! In this case, WannaCrypt / WannaCry / WCry (a malware variant Wanna Decryptor), locks your computer up completely. Then demands payment via Bitcoin ($300 is the going rate PER COMPUTER) to buy a program that will unlock your computer. (The normal way maleware spreads is through us people clicking on links that are really .exe files, which are files to execute and run a virus on your computer. A person needs to click to spread to another computer. THIS ONE actually spreads itself once it is in a network, like at a Hospital.)
What's the MOST SCARIEST part of these jerks doing this? They have infected healthcare facilities across the world. The reports I've read online show the UK has massively been affected, but tons of countries have been hit.
Hospitals and other medical facilities have had to completely close and send patients elsewhere. I just saw a video of a man whose heart surgery was canceled. But if medical facilities can't access a patient's file, then they don't know what meds they're on or which ones they're allergic to. The can't get the results of bloodwork or other tests. Not to mention those undergoing treatments for their life-threatening illnesses. No records access... no kemo, radiation treatment, dialysis, organ transplants, etc. Forget about a person that's so terribly injured they have minutes to get to the nearest hospital trauma center or they'll die; "You have to go somewhere else and hope you don't die on the way, sir/ma'am/child."
I can honestly say I hope the people responsible for this attack, find themselves in dire medical situations for their own personal bodies and have NOWHERE TO GO. They don't need to die, but I want God to punish them and make them suffer. And though I know it's a snowball's chance in hell they'll be caught, I really, really hope they are.
This is a Wordfence public service security announcement for all users of computers running any version of Windows. We have confirmed that a serious virulent ransomware threat known as WannaCrypt0r/WannaCry has affected Windows computers on shared networks in at least 74 countries worldwide, with 57...