A day after a Navi Mumbai hospital and hotel became targets of a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , cyber fraudsters encrypted data belonging to a Dadar-based chartered accountant and demanded money Attack.Ransom to remove the block on the data on Monday . While the incident Attack.Ransom took place on Monday , the complainant , realised that his data has been blocked on Tuesday . “ A case of ransomware was reported , following which , an FIR has been registered at the Bhoiwada police station , ” said Deputy Commissioner of Police ( Zone 4 ) N Ambika . While the FIR was lodged on Thursday , no arrest has been made in the case yet . Police said the incident Attack.Ransom took place on Monday at the complainant ’ s office near Framroz court in Dadar . Around 2.15 pm , a message flashed on the complainant ’ s computer screen saying , “ You have to pay Attack.Ransom for decryption in bitcoins . The price depends on how fast you write to us . After payment , we will send you the decryption key , which will decrypt all your files. ” The message also had an email address , on which he was to write to the fraudsters . Around 7 pm , when the complainant tried to use a computer for some work , he could not access the data . When he tried other computers , he faced the same problem . He also found that some data and software had been deleted . Suspecting that a computer virus may be behind this , he copied the other files still available from the computer . The complainant then left for the day and asked an employee from the information technology department to look into the matter . The employee later told him that the data had not been deleted but encrypted by fraudsters . On Sunday , the MGM hospital in Navi Mumbai was attacked Attack.Ransom by a ransomware . Its data was locked out and the fraudsters demanded payment Attack.Ransom in bitcoins .

A massive attack is spreading globally by way of a vulnerability in Microsoft 's Server Message Block that was patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in March . Ransomware is no longer just a nuisance . Now it 's quite literally a matter of life and death . A massive ransomware attack Attack.Ransom being labeled as `` WannaCry Attack.Ransom `` has been reported around the world and is responsible for shutting down hospitals in the United Kingdom and encrypting files at Spanish telecom firm Telefonica . The WannaCry attack Attack.Ransom is not a zero-day flaw , but rather is based on an exploit that Microsoft patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability with its MS17-010 advisory on March 14 in the SMB Server . However , Microsoft did not highlight Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the SMB flaw until April 14 , when a hacker group known as the Shadow Brokers released Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a set of exploits , allegedly stolen Attack.Databreach from the U.S.National Security Agency . SMB , or Server Message Block , is a critical protocol used by Windows to enable file and folder sharing . It 's also the protocol that today 's WannaCry attack Attack.Ransom is exploiting to rapidly spread from one host to the next around the world , literally at the speed of light . The attack is what is known as a worm , `` slithering '' from one host to the next on connected networks . Among the first large organizations to be impacted by WannaCry is The National Health Service in the UK , which has publicly confirmed that it was attacked Attack.Ransom by the Wan na Decryptor. `` This attack Attack.Ransom was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors , '' the NHS stated . `` At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed Attack.Databreach . '' Security firm Kaspersky Lab reported that by 2:30 p.m . ET May 12 it had already seen more than 45,000 WannaCry attacks Attack.Ransom in 74 countries . While the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom is making use of the SMB vulnerability to spread , the encryption of files is done by the Wanna Decryptor attack Attack.Ransom that seeks out all files on a victim 's network . Once the ransomware has completed encrypting files , victims are presented with a screen demanding a ransom Attack.Ransom . Initially , the ransom requested Attack.Ransom was reported to be $ 300 worth of Bitcoin , according to Kaspersky Lab . `` Many of your documents , photos , videos , databases and other files are no longer accessible because they have been encrypted , '' the ransom note states . `` Maybe you are busy looking for a way to recover your files , but do not waste your time . Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service . '' It 's not clear who the original source of the global WannaCry attacks Attack.Ransom is at this point , or even if it 's a single threat actor or multiple actors . What is clear is that despite the fact that a software patch has been available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability since March for the SMB flaws , WannaCry is using tens of thousands of organizations that did n't patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability .

( TNS ) — Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must send Attack.Ransom us 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn’t paying Attack.Ransom , but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total payments Attack.Ransom are nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currency Attack.Ransom like bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and payments Attack.Ransom are approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paid Attack.Ransom $ 25 million in ransom Attack.Ransom to get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransom Attack.Ransom don ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attacked Attack.Ransom by SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to pay Attack.Ransom the estimated $ 44,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneaked Attack.Ransom into Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to pay Attack.Ransom 4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransom Attack.Ransom . Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Colorado security officials are still investigating the CDOT ransomware attack Attack.Ransom that took 2,000 employee computers offline for more than a week . They don ’ t plan to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom but offered few details about the attack Attack.Ransom other than confirming it was a variant of the SamSam ransomware . Security researchers with Cisco ’ s Talos , which shared the SamSam message with The Denver Post , reported in January that the new SamSam variant had so far collected 30.4 bitcoin , or about $ 325,217 . The reality is that people need to be smarter about computer security . That means patching software , using anti-malware software , and not sharing passwords and accounts . And not opening files , emails or links from unfamiliar sources — and sometimes familiar sources . Webroot doesn ’ t have an official stance on whether to pay a ransom Attack.Ransom to get files back , but Dufour says it ’ s a personal decision . Cybersecurity companies like Webroot can advise whether the hacker has a reputation for restoring files after payment is received Attack.Ransom . “ Paying a ransom Attack.Ransom to a cybercriminal is an incredibly personal decision . It ’ s easy to say not to negotiate with criminals when it ’ s not your family photos or business data that you ’ ll never see again . Unfortunately , if you want your data back , paying the ransom Attack.Ransom is often the only option , ” Dufour said . “ However , it ’ s important to know that there are some strains of ransomware that have coding and encryption errors . For these cases , even paying the ransom Attack.Ransom won ’ t decrypt your data . I recommend checking with a computer security expert before paying any ransom Attack.Ransom . ”

In wake of an attack on computers at Colorado ’ s DOT , experts at Webroot shed light on ransomware Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must send Attack.Ransom us 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn ’ t paying Attack.Ransom , but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total payments Attack.Ransom are nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currency Attack.Ransom like bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . To better understand how ransomware works and how it has spread so effectively , The Denver Post talked with Broomfield anti-malware company Webroot , which got its start in the late 1990s cleansing computer viruses from personal computers . “ The end goal is just to put ransomware on the computer because right now the most successful way for cybercriminals to make money is with ransoming Attack.Ransom your files , ” said Tyler Moffitt , a senior threat research analyst at Webroot . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and payments Attack.Ransom are approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paid Attack.Ransom $ 25 million in ransom Attack.Ransom to get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransom Attack.Ransom don ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . It ’ s a growing business for cybercriminals . And whether to pay or not is something each user or company must decide . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attacked Attack.Ransom by SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to pay Attack.Ransom the estimated $ 44,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneaked Attack.Ransom into Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to pay Attack.Ransom 4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransom Attack.Ransom . Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Other times , malware isn ’ t so obvious . Some propagate when user visits infected websites . A trojan named Poweliks injected bad code into vulnerable programs , like an unpatched Internet Explorer . Poweliks crept into the Windows registry to force the computer to do all sorts of nasty things , from demanding a ransom Attack.Ransom to joining a click-fraud bot network to click ads without the user even realizing it . There also are booby-trapped ads , known as malvertising . They get into computers by , again , targeting flawed software and injecting malicious code . This has targeted programs like unpatched Adobe Flash Player , Java or other runtime software , or software that runs online all the time .

SOUTH BEND — A local physicians network was the focus of a recent cyberattack that released ransomware into its network . According to a news release from Allied Physicians of Michiana CEO Shery Roussarie , the company became aware of the cyberattack on Thursday afternoon and immediately took steps to shut down the network in order to protect personal and protected health information of patients . The company restored its data in a secure format without significant disruption to patients , but an investigation is ongoing to confirm that personal or protected health information wasn ’ t compromised Attack.Databreach . The type of ransomware , known as SamSam , has been used in other attacks to coerce businesses , municipalities and individuals to pay a ransom Attack.Ransom in order to unlock files held hostage by the infection . In March , the city of Atlanta was attacked Attack.Ransom by SamSam ransomware that crippled its court system , prevented water bill payments and forced city employees to file paper reports . “ The security of our patients ’ personal and protected health information is foremost in our mind ” Roussarie said in the news release . “ While we make every effort to keep ahead of these types of cyberattacks , we have nevertheless taken additional steps to minimize any such future attack of the type experienced last week. ” Allied Physicians would not say whether or not it has paid a ransom Attack.Ransom , or what amount was demanded Attack.Ransom by the SamSam hackers , but that it plans to work with “ all relevant regulatory agencies , including the FBI , to thoroughly define the scope of the incident . ”

A Vermont business 's computer system was attacked Attack.Ransom by hackers and held for ransom Attack.Ransom . It may sound like a movie plot but ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom like these are on the rise . According to their 2017 Internet Crime report , last year the FBI received 1,783 complaints identified as ransomware . The adjusted losses from the attacks was over $ 2.3 million . An example of a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom is software that downloads to your computer , encrypts your data and then demands money Attack.Ransom to get it back . It 's technological extortion , essentially . And that 's what happened to Wendell 's Furniture in Colchester at the end of last month . `` Our servers crashed and when our IT guy came to take care of the problem , I asked him how the patient was doing and he just got kind of an ashen look on his face and he just shook his head and I knew we were in trouble , '' said Ryan Farrell , the vice president of Wendell 's Furniture . Farrell says in their nearly 20 years of business , they 've never had this type of cybersecurity attack . `` I honestly do n't think I believed it to begin with . It 's something you see in the movies , something you see on TV but it 's never something that I thought would happen to us , especially here in Vermont , '' Farrell said . The company 's sales information from the last 5-10 years was stolen Attack.Databreach , including customers ' names , addresses , phone numbers and email addresses . However , no credit card numbers were part of the breach . `` My message to customers is not to panic , do n't be worried about your information , '' Farrell said . `` Just know that it 's going to take us just a little bit more time to get your sofa to you but we 're open for business . '' Wendell 's was able to recover most of the data but not all of it . They are still missing several months ' worth of data . `` Everything that used to be easy is now really hard , '' Farrell said . A McAfee report shows that ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom are up more than 100 percent in the second quarter of 2018 over that same time frame in 2016 . Duane Dunston teaches cybersecurity at Champlain College and says these attacks can be hard to count . `` It 's not really clear because many organizations may not report it , '' he said . `` It may be easier for them to give them the money and just move on . '' Wendell 's ended up paying thousands of dollars but Dunston says that can have repercussions . `` One of the dangers is that they can come back and ask for more money at a later time , '' he explained . `` There really is no way to know whether they are going to delete the data or whatever they are demanding . '' Dunston says there is lots of public information on how to protect your data but to make sure you are backing it up and updating your security systems . Wendell 's has now reinforced its computer firewalls and replaced parts of its infrastructure that are susceptible to attack . `` We 're getting back on our feet , '' Farrell said . Customers who financed their purchase with Synchrony Financial may have had their account numbers compromised , but according to Wendell 's that threat is low . The business has sent out about 500 letters notifying customers and says they are doing their best to get the word out .