The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransom Attack.Ransom ) originated , '' Doshi said Computer systems of a private hospital in Navi Mumbai have come under a malware attack , with attackers seeking ransom Attack.Ransom in Bitcoins , police today said . The cyber attack Attack.Ransom on the computer systems of Mahatma Gandhi Mission Hospital came to light on July 15 , police said . Hospital administrators found the systems locked , with an encrypted message by unidentified attackers demanding ransom Attack.Ransom in Bitcoins to unlock it , said Tushar Doshi , Deputy Commissioner of Police ( Crime ) . Authorities found that access to the data of the previous 15 days had been blocked . Such attacks are described as ` ransomware' attacks Attack.Ransom , where a malicious software enters the victim 's computer system , and the attackers threaten to publish the data or block access to it unless a ransom is paid Attack.Ransom . The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransom Attack.Ransom ) originated , '' Doshi said . Computerised billing and medicine prescription system were affected due to the malware attack , but the hospital maintains a written record of all its data , he said . Cyber experts were trying to get the system back on track , the DCP said . A case under section 43 ( hacking ) of the Information Technology Act has been registered with the Vashi Police Station . Among the recent cyber attacks of this kind , the ` WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom ' of May 2017 infected more than 2,30,000 computers across 150 countries .

The recent WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , which spread to more than 100 countries , is only the beginning in a series of similar attacks , according to Cătălin Coșoi , head of the Bitdefender ’ s investigation team coordinating the relations of the company with institutions such as NATO , Europol , Interpol , or national response centers to cyber-security incidents , Agerpres reported . Romanian group Bitdefender is a global technology security company which provides cyber security solutions to more than 500 million users across businesses and homes in more than 150 countries . “ The WannaCry 1.0 and 2.0 versions , a type of fast-spreading ransomware that blocks the data of the users and then asks for a ransom Attack.Ransom , are only the beginning in a series of similar , ample attacks , making WannaCry one of the most significant IT threats of the next 12 months . The amplitude of the WannaCry phenomenon Attack.Ransom can be reduced rapidly if Microsoft decides to push Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability an update to all users who do not use the most recent version of the Windows operating system . This measure has been taken before , and the reach of the WannaCry threat Attack.Ransom could justify this again , in a controlled and coordinated method , with the support of authorities and of cyber-security companies . Although the measure of updating without the user ’ s permission would force the limits of current legislation , the Bitdefender expertise in cyber-security has proven that , many times , current regulations do not keep up with the evolution of the criminal phenomenon . This is why cooperation between authorities and the IT security industry is more needed than ever , ” Coșoi explained . The computers in public institutions , hospitals , and other social sector organizations are not usually updated with the most recent OS system , the Bitdefender representative said . “ If the respective terminals are not infected by ransomware now , they will remain vulnerable to other threats , including cyber-attacks sponsored by other states . In the event of such a scenario , ransomware would be a fortunate case , because it produces palpable consequences . On the other hand , the advanced threats used for espionage purposes could exploit the vulnerability of the operating system and systematically steal Attack.Databreach information for a long time , without being detected , ” Coșoi explained . A global WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom took place last weekend , affecting some 100 countries . The attack , which has been called “ unprecedented ” by Europol , has affected hospitals in Britain and Spanish telecom operator Telefonica , as well as courier service FedEx in the US . Car-maker Dacia had to halt its local production activities because of the attack . WannaCry is a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom which exploits a vulnerability of the Microsoft Windows operating system . Once installed on the infected computer , the virus encrypts the users ’ files and demands payment Attack.Ransom in bitcoin to allow the victims to access their data .

The recent WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , which spread to more than 100 countries , is only the beginning in a series of similar attacks , according to Cătălin Coșoi , head of the Bitdefender ’ s investigation team coordinating the relations of the company with institutions such as NATO , Europol , Interpol , or national response centers to cyber-security incidents , Agerpres reported . Romanian group Bitdefender is a global technology security company which provides cyber security solutions to more than 500 million users across businesses and homes in more than 150 countries . “ The WannaCry 1.0 and 2.0 versions , a type of fast-spreading ransomware that blocks the data of the users and then asks for a ransom Attack.Ransom , are only the beginning in a series of similar , ample attacks , making WannaCry one of the most significant IT threats of the next 12 months . The amplitude of the WannaCry phenomenon Attack.Ransom can be reduced rapidly if Microsoft decides to push Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability an update to all users who do not use the most recent version of the Windows operating system . This measure has been taken before , and the reach of the WannaCry threat Attack.Ransom could justify this again , in a controlled and coordinated method , with the support of authorities and of cyber-security companies . Although the measure of updating without the user ’ s permission would force the limits of current legislation , the Bitdefender expertise in cyber-security has proven that , many times , current regulations do not keep up with the evolution of the criminal phenomenon . This is why cooperation between authorities and the IT security industry is more needed than ever , ” Coșoi explained . The computers in public institutions , hospitals , and other social sector organizations are not usually updated with the most recent OS system , the Bitdefender representative said . “ If the respective terminals are not infected by ransomware now , they will remain vulnerable to other threats , including cyber-attacks sponsored by other states . In the event of such a scenario , ransomware would be a fortunate case , because it produces palpable consequences . On the other hand , the advanced threats used for espionage purposes could exploit the vulnerability of the operating system and systematically steal Attack.Databreach information for a long time , without being detected , ” Coșoi explained . A global WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom took place last weekend , affecting some 100 countries . The attack , which has been called “ unprecedented ” by Europol , has affected hospitals in Britain and Spanish telecom operator Telefonica , as well as courier service FedEx in the US . Car-maker Dacia had to halt its local production activities because of the attack . WannaCry is a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom which exploits a vulnerability of the Microsoft Windows operating system . Once installed on the infected computer , the virus encrypts the users ’ files and demands payment Attack.Ransom in bitcoin to allow the victims to access their data .

There ’ s no question that Friday ’ s WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , which spread like wildfire , was bad . Its ability to spread like a worm by exploiting a Microsoft vulnerability was certainly new ground for a ransomware campaign . But along the way , there ’ s been a lot of fear and hype . Perspective is in order . Here ’ s a look at the latest in Sophos ’ investigation , including a recap of how it is protecting customers . From there , we look at how this fits into overall attack trends and how , in the grand scheme of things , this doesn ’ t represent a falling sky . With the code behind Friday ’ s attack in the wild , we should expect copycats to cook up their own campaigns in the coming days to capitalize on the money-making opportunity in front of them . Over the weekend , accounts set up to collect ransom payments Attack.Ransom had received smaller amounts than expected for an attack of this size . But by Monday morning , the balances were on the rise , suggesting that more people were responding to the ransom message Monday . On Saturday , three ransomware-associated wallets had received 92 bitcoin payments Attack.Ransom totaling $ 26,407.85 USD . By Sunday , the number between the three wallets was up to $ 30,706.61 USD . By Monday morning , 181 payments Attack.Ransom had been made totaling 29.46564365 BTC ( $ 50,504.23 USD ) . Analysis seems to confirm that Friday ’ s attack was launched using suspected NSA code leaked by a group of hackers known as the Shadow Brokers . It used a variant of the Shadow Brokers ’ APT EternalBlue Exploit ( CC-1353 ) , and used strong encryption on files such as documents , images , and videos . A perfect attack would self-propagate but would do so slowly , randomly and unpredictably . This one was full throttle , but hardly to its detriment . Here we had something that spread like wildfire , but the machines that were impacted Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability were probably still susceptible to secondary attacks because the underlying vulnerability probably hasn ’ t been patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . The problem is that exploit and payload are separate . The payload went fast and got stopped , but that ’ s just one of an infinite number of possibilities that can spread through the unsolved exploit . Companies still using Windows XP are particularly susceptible to this sort of attack . First launched in 2001 , the operating system is now 16 years old and has been superseded by Windows Vista and Windows 7 , 8 and 10 upgrades . It remains to be seen who was behind this attack . Sophos is cooperating with law enforcement to provide any intelligence it can gather about the origins and attack vectors . The company believes initial infections may have arrived via an email with a malicious payload that a user was tricked Attack.Phishing into opening . Sophos continues to update protections against the threat . Sophos Customers using Intercept X and Sophos EXP products will also see this ransomware blocked by CryptoGuard . Please note that while Intercept X and EXP will block the underlying behavior and restore deleted or encrypted files in all cases we have seen , the offending ransomware splash screen and note may still appear . For updates on the specific strains being blocked , Sophos is continually updating a Knowledge-Base Article on the subject . Meanwhile , everyone is urged to update their Windows environments as described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS17-010 – Critical . For those using older versions of Windows , Microsoft has provided Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Customer Guidance for WannaCrypt attacks Attack.Ransom and has made the decision to make the Security Update for platforms in custom support only – Windows XP , Windows 8 , and Windows Server 2003 – broadly available for download Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . As severe as this attack was , it ’ s important to note that we ’ re not looking at a shift in the overall attack trend . This attack represents a merging of old behaviors into a perfect storm . SophosLabs VP Simon Reed said : This attack demonstrates the opportunistic nature of commercial malware authors to re-use the most powerful of exploit techniques to further their aims , which is ultimately to make money . In the final analysis , the same advice as always applies for those who want to avoid such attacks . To guard against malware exploiting Microsoft vulnerabilities : To guard against ransomware in general : Finally , there ’ s the question of whether victims should pay the ransom Attack.Ransom or stand their ground . Sophos has mostly taken a neutral stance on the issue . In the case of this attack , paying the ransom Attack.Ransom doesn ’ t seem to be helping the victims so far . Therefore , Levy believes paying the WannaCry ransom Attack.Ransom is ill-advised : In general , paying Attack.Ransom is a bad idea unless the organization is truly desperate to get irreplaceable data back and when it is known that the ransom payment Attack.Ransom works . In this attack , it doesn ’ t appear to work . It ’ s been referred to as a ‘ kill switch ’ – that all the malware author had to do to throw the breaks on for some reason was to register some obscure domains . In the event a security researcher found the domains and registered them . He speculates that its not actually a kill switch but may be a form of sandbox detection ( malware wants to run in the real world and hide when it ’ s in a researcher ’ s sandbox . ) The thinking goes that in the kind of sandbox environment used by security researchers the domains might appear to be registered when in fact they are not . If the malware can get a response from the unregistered domains it thinks it ’ s in a sandbox and shuts down . If you blocklist the domains in your network then you ’ re turning off the “ kill switch ” . If you allowlist the domains you ’ re allowing access to the kill switch .

The 'WannaCrypt ' ransomware has been a worldwide dilemma , impacting many countries . Luckily , the malware only impacts older versions of Microsoft 's operating system -- Windows 10 is not vulnerable . Also immune to WannaCrypt is macOS and Linux distributions . Unfortunately , many people run older versions of Windows , but Microsoft has been very active in issuing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches for them -- including for the now-unsupported XP . Patches aside , security software can protect vulnerable computers too . In fact , today , Symantec announces that it has successfully blocked almost 22 million WannaCrypt attacks Attack.Ransom . The company even leveraged machine learning in its fight against the ransomware . The company explains that it , `` blocked nearly 22 million WannaCry infection attempts across 300,000 endpoints , providing full protection for Symantec customers through its advanced exploit protection technology . The WannaCry ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom targeted and affected users in various countries across the globe by encrypting data files on infected computers and demanding Attack.Ransom users pay Attack.Ransom a $ 300USD ransom Attack.Ransom in bitcoin to decrypt their files . The protection of Symantec customers was enabled in part due to the integration of real-time threat intelligence shared across both Symantec Endpoint Protection and the Blue Coat ProxySG , which provided real-time threat awareness across the endpoint , network and cloud . '' Mike Fey , president and chief operating officer at Symantec explains , `` The WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom is the largest we 've ever seen of its kind and we 're pleased to share that Symantec customers benefited from multiple layers of protection even before it happened , through innovations and new capabilities in our Integrated Cyber Defense Platform . Our proactive network protection and advanced machine learning technologies provided real-time , zero-day , protection for all SEP and Norton customers when WannaCry was released last week . And , our Global Intelligence Network automatically shares WannaCry intelligence between Symantec endpoint , email and Blue Coat network products , providing full protection across all control points , including the cloud . '' While Symantec 's announcement highlights the importance of security software for both home and business users , it should n't distract from the fact that it is also imperative to apply operating system updates in a timely matter . Also important is using supported software . Yes , Microsoft patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the unsupported Windows XP , but that OS should really not even be in use anymore .

A flaw in unpatched versions of Window 10 could leave machines vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to EternalBlue , the remote kernel exploit behind the recent WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom . WannaCry targeted a Server Message Block ( SMB ) critical vulnerability that Microsoft patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability with MS17-010 on March 14 , 2017 . While WannaCry damage Attack.Ransom was mostly limited to machines running Windows 7 , a different version of EternalBlue could infect Windows 10 . Researchers at RiskSense stripped the original leaked version of EternalBlue down to its essential components and deemed parts of the data unnecessary for exploitation . They found they could bypass detection rules recommended by governments and antivirus vendors , says RiskSense senior security researcher Sean Dillon . This version of EternalBlue , an exploit initially released by Shadow Brokers earlier this year , does not use the DoublePulsar payload common among other exploits leaked by the hacker group . DoublePulsar was the main implant used in WannaCry Attack.Ransom and a key focus for defenders . `` That backdoor is unnecessary , '' says Dillon , noting how it 's dangerous for businesses to only focus on DoublePulsar malware . `` This exploit could directly load malware onto the system without needing to install the backdoor . '' EternalBlue gives instant un-credentialed remote access to Windows machines without the MS17-010 patch update . While it 's difficult to port EternalBlue to additional versions of Windows , it 's not impossible . Unpatched Windows 10 machines are at risk , despite the fact that Microsoft 's newest OS receives exploit mitigations that earlier versions do n't . The slimmed-down EternalBlue can be ported to unpatched versions of Windows 10 and deliver stealthier payloads . An advanced malware would be able to target any Windows machine , broadening the spread of an attack like WannaCry , Dillon explains . It 's worth noting WannaCry was a blatant , obvious attack , he says , and other types of malware , like banking spyware and bitcoin miners , could more easily fly under the radar . `` These can infect a network and you wo n't know about it until years later , '' he says . `` It 's a threat to organizations that have been targets , like governments and corporations . Attackers may try to get onto these networks and lay dormant … then steal Attack.Databreach intellectual property or cause other damage . '' Dillon emphasizes the importance of updating Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability to the latest version of Windows 10 , but says patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability alone wo n't give complete protection from this kind of threat . Businesses with SMB facing the Internet should also put up firewalls , and set up VPN access for users who need external access to the internal network . Businesses should have a good inventory of software and devices on their networks , along with processes for identifying and deploying Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches as they are released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , says Craig Young , computer security researcher for Tripwire 's Vulnerability and Exposures Research Team ( VERT ) . This will become even more critical as attackers move quickly from patch to exploit . There will always be a window of opportunity for attackers before the right patches are installed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , Young notes . EternalBlue is a `` very fresh vulnerability '' given that most breaches that use exploits leverage flaws that have been publicly known Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability for an average of two years or more . `` EternalBlue is a particularly reliable exploit that gives access to execute code at the very highest privilege level , so I would expect that hackers and penetration testers will get a lot of use out of it for years to come , '' he says .

The United States ’ National Security Agency has linked North Korea to the WannaCry ransomware attack Attack.Ransom that had affected more than 3,00,000 people worldwide in May , reported The Washington Post . The NSA analysed tactics , techniques and targets that suggest the Reconnaissance General Bureau , North Korea ’ s spy agency , was behind the attack . The assessment was issued internally last week and has not yet been made public . According to the assessment , the cyber actors , suspected to be sponsored by the RGB , were behind two versions of WannaCry . The Shadow Brokers , a hacking group believed to be behind a massive dump Attack.Databreach of National Security Agency cyber-weapons and software , were responsible for releasing the vulnerability in the computer systems used by government agencies and other companies . The vulnerability had led to WannaCry being able to replicate itself and causing massive damage internationally . The vulnerability was referred to by the NSA as “ EternalBlue ” . WannaCry is a malicious software that had crippled systems worldwide and affected more than 150 countries in a cyber attack in May . It had locked data on computers it struck , which could only be released after a paying a ransom Attack.Ransom in bitcoins . The major cyber attack had targeted several nations , bringing operations at hospitals , telecommunications firms and other companies to a halt .