Wana Decrypt0r 2.0

Today amongst the 74 countries struck, NHS in UK has been very badly infected.

Much discussion on television in UK about XP being particularly vulnerable, as not patched by M$.

Microsoft are still protecting XP for corporate customers who pay them a heavy fee, so I guess they have a patch for XP.

Given the chaos, I wonder if there is any way to get Microsoft to release this, after all, they did release an IE patch for XP, even AFTER M$ themselves had advised users not to use IE browser.

 

Microsoft won't release it. The response to this question they will give is simply to upgrade to a "safer modern version of Windows" as a way for you to shell out your hard earned cash and pay them.

Heck, they even try to say the still supported Win 7 is dangerous to use. Real reason isn't because of that, but because they wan't people to upgrade to 10 and pay them cash. They never actually started pressing this whole "7 is extremely dangerous upgrade now!" thing or any of the other lies until they stopped giving away 10 upgrades for free. Funny, huh?

 

M$ have just announced they will release the patch for XP.

link:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/wannac...s-patch-for-windows-xp-and-other-old-systems/

 

http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4012598

download links from MS

 

Thanks, Elizabeth.

I did not post the download link, because when I tried it, it did not work. Message= "There is a problem with this page".

But I guess it probably was just overwhelmed by initial volume of traffic.

 

Extremely surprised.
But a good thing. I'm sure it will be announced soon but my local mcdonalds franchise was hit. They use Compaq POS machines with Windows XP and were hit by this. They were all closed while they were reset and restored by they're ITs.

 

Two things M$ does which are very unhelpful: stealth apps which surreptitiously install M$'s snooping under the guise of being security patches, and describing what a security patch does in terms that are insufficiently specific for user to evaluate whether they are wanted.

I feel certain users would keep better update status if M$ played fair with its customers.

 

I am not sure, but if a pc is hit by any virus why doesn't everyone just wipe the drive and reinstall??

 

I gather this one is pernicious, and spreads through network without the requirement for any user initiated contact between devices on the network. The term 'air-gapped' back up is being heard a lot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gap_(networking)

I guess, though it is maybe too early to know, that some people have back-up on their local network, which has also been compromised.

Found little in on line search, though the problem was under discussion some years back.

Link:

http://storage.ittoolbox.com/groups...irgapped-backups-a-necessary-practice-5561776

 

Sorry, don't know why the above link is bad, but this one, which is identical works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gap_(networking)

 

thanks

 

Priscus is right on the money about this one being pernicious! This story on BleepingComputer.com gives you some idea of just how pernicious it is.....

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...th-wannacry-ransomware-6-times-in-90-minutes/

And then this follow up just a couple of hours later...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...s-versions-to-protect-against-wana-decrypt0r/

Which is why disabling the SMBv1 protocol stuff is a far better long-term form of protection, since the ETERNALBLUE worm that was liberated from the NSA by the ShadowBrokers (and which is being used in WanaDecryptor to spread this crap) enters via SMB port 445.

I have to agree with both Jody & towgers, though; I'm gobsmacked at this turn of events. Shows that MyCrudSoft could be keeping XP patched if they wanted to.....


Mike.

 

I just don't understand why Microsoft would go ahead and patch it after years of saying they aren't touching XP anymore and harassing us saying XP is dangerous and like it or not to update to modern Windows.

While I am impressed with the events, from a sales and business standpoint Microsoft missed a golden opportunity. They could have been like "Affected by the new Wana Decrypt0r 2.0 Virus? UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10 FOR HALF OFF!".

 

They may well make more cash from the current circumstances.

I wonder just how many victims have found themselves saying they wish they had paid for the customer support offered by M$ for a fee, beyond the 2014 end of extended support for XP.

Words 'horse' and 'Stable Door' spring to mind, but I bet that service has a lot more customers from next week.

(Too expensive for individual users, I guess. Think it is only an option for corporate users, though I have not seen the prices.)