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By now I am sure you have already heard something about the WannaCry ransomware , and are wondering what's going on, who is doing this, and whether your computer is secure from this insanely fast-spreading threat that has already hacked nearly 200,000 Windows PCs over the weekend. The only positive thing about this attack is that — you are here — as after reading this easy-to-understandable awareness article, you would be so cautious that you can save yourself from WannaCry, as well as other similar cyber attacks in the future. Also Read — Google Researcher Finds Link Between WannaCry Attacks and North Korea . Since this widely spread ransomware attack is neither the first nor the last one to hit users worldwide, prevention is always the key to protect against such malware threats. What is WannaCry? How to Protect your Computer from WannaCry Ransomware? Follow These Simple Steps. TWEET THIS In this article, we have provided some of the most important primary secu...

When the world was dealing with the threat of the self-spreading WannaCry ransomware , WikiLeaks released a new batch of CIA Vault 7 leaks , detailing two apparent CIA malware frameworks for the Microsoft Windows platform. Dubbed " AfterMidnight " and " Assassin ," both malware programs are designed to monitor and report back actions on the infected remote host computer running the Windows operating system and execute malicious actions specified by the CIA. Since March, WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of documents and secret hacking tools that the group claims came from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This latest batch is the 8th release in the whistleblowing organization's 'Vault 7' series. 'AfterMidnight' Malware Framework According to a statement from WikiLeaks, 'AfterMidnight' allows its operators to dynamically load and execute malicious payload on a target system. The main controller of the ma...

Update —  After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article " WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately . "  If you are following the news, by now you might be aware that a security researcher has activated a "Kill Switch" which apparently stopped the WannaCry ransomware from spreading further. But it's not true, neither the threat is over yet. However, the kill switch has just slowed down the infection rate. Updated:  Multiple security researchers have claimed that there are more samples of WannaCry out there, with different 'kill-switch' domains and without any kill-switch function, continuing to infect unpatched computers worldwide (find more details below). So far, over 237,000 computers across 99 countries around the world have been infected, and the infection is still rising even hours after the kill swit...

Is Managing Customer Logins and Data Giving You Headaches? You're Not Alone! Today, we all expect super-fast, secure, and personalized online experiences. But let's be honest, we're also more careful about how our data is used. If something feels off, trust can vanish in an instant. Add to that the lightning-fast changes AI is bringing to everything from how we log in to spotting online fraud, and it's a whole new ball game! If you're dealing with logins, data privacy, bringing new users on board, or building digital trust, this webinar is for you . Join us for " Navigating Customer Identity in the AI Era ," where we'll dive into the Auth0 2025 Customer Identity Trends Report . We'll show you what's working, what's not, and how to tweak your strategy for the year ahead. In just one session, you'll get practical answers to real-world challenges like: How AI is changing what users expect – and where they're starting to push ba...

Update —  After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article " WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately . "  In the wake of the largest ransomware attack in the history that had already infected over 114,000 Windows systems worldwide since last 24 hours, Microsoft just took an unusual step to protect its customers with out-of-date computers. Also Read —   Google Researcher Finds Link Between WannaCry Attacks and North Korea . Microsoft has just released an emergency security patch update for all its unsupported version of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, Windows 8, Server 2003 and 2008 Editions. So, if your organization, for some reason, is still running on Windows XP or Vista, you are strongly advised to download and APPLY PATCH NOW ! WannaCrypt , or also known as WannaCry, is a new ransomware that wreaked havoc across th...

Update —  After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article " WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately . "  Earlier today, a massive ransomware campaign hit computer systems of hundreds of private companies and public organizations across the globe – which is believed to be the most massive ransomware delivery campaign to date. The Ransomware in question has been identified as a variant of ransomware known as WannaCry (also known as 'Wana Decrypt0r,' 'WannaCryptor' or 'WCRY'). Like other nasty ransomware variants, WannaCry also blocks access to a computer or its files and demands money to unlock it. Once infected with the WannaCry ransomware, victims are asked to pay up to $300 in order to remove the infection from their PCs; otherwise, their PCs render unusable, and their files remain locked. In separate ne...

A massive malicious email campaign that stems from the Necurs botnet is spreading a new ransomware at the rate of 5 million emails per hour and hitting computers across the globe. Dubbed "Jaff," the new file-encrypting ransomware is very similar to the infamous Locky ransomware in many ways, but it is demanding 1.79 Bitcoins (approx $3,150), which much higher than Locky, to unlock the encrypted files on an infected computer. According to security researchers at Forcepoint Security Lab, Jaff ransomware, written in C programming language, is being distributed with the help of Necurs botnet that currently controls over 6 million infected computers worldwide. Necurs botnet is sending emails to millions of users with an attached PDF document, which if clicked, opens up an embedded Word document with a malicious macro script to downloads and execute the Jaff ransomware, Malwarebytes says . Jaff is Spreading at the Rate of 5 Million per Hour The malicious email camp...

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Microsoft has been expressing its love for Linux and Open Source for almost three years now, and this love is embracing as time passes. Just last year, Microsoft made headlines by building support for the Bash shell and Ubuntu Linux binaries into Windows 10, allowing users to run limited instances of Linux directly on top of the OS without installing any virtual machine, as well as developers to run command-line tools while building apps. Now, Microsoft has announced at its Build developer conference in Seattle that three different flavors of the free Linux operating system are coming to the company's app store, so its users can run Windows and Linux apps side-by-side. Yes, it's no joke. Three versions of Linux distributions – Ubuntu, Fedora, and SUSE – are coming to the Windows Store. Now, you'll soon be able to install these Linux operating systems on your Windows device just like any other app. While Ubuntu is already available on the Windows Store for a...

A security researcher has publicly disclosed two critical zero-day vulnerabilities in Vanilla Forums, an open source software that powers discussion on over 500,000 websites, which could allow unauthenticated, remote attackers to fully compromise targeted websites easily. Discovered by Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers, two separate unpatched vulnerabilities, a remote code execution ( CVE-2016-10033 ) and host header injection ( CVE-2016-10073 ), affect the latest version of Vanilla Forums 2.3, leaving hundreds of thousands of websites and their visitors vulnerable to various hacking attacks. Vanilla Forums: Remote Code Execution Flaw According to Golunski, both vulnerabilities technically exist because Vanilla Forum is still using a vulnerable version of PHPMailer , one of the most popular open source PHP libraries used to send emails. Last year Golunski reported a critical remote code execution flaw ( CVE-2016-10033 ) in PHPMailer library that al...

There is a bad news for all OnePlus lovers. A security researcher has discovered four vulnerabilities that affect all OnePlus handsets, including One, X, 2, 3 and 3T, running the latest versions of OxygenOS 4.1.3 (worldwide) and below, as well as HydrogenOS 3.0 and below (for Chinese users). Damn, I am feeling bad, I myself use OnePlus. One of the unpatched vulnerabilities allows Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack against OnePlus device users, allowing a remote attacker to downgrade the device's operating system to an older version, which could then expand the attack surface for exploitation of previously disclosed now-patched vulnerabilities. What's even worse? The other two vulnerabilities also allow an MitM attacker to replace any version of OxygenOS with HydrogenOS (or vice versa), as well as to replace the operating system with a completely different malicious ROM loaded with spying apps. The vulnerabilities have been discovered by Roee Hay of Aleph Research, HCL ...

Hackers won't be spared. Three Chinese hackers have been ordered to pay $8.8 million (£6.8 million) after hacking email servers of two major New York-based law firms to steal corporate merger plans in December 2016 and used them to trade stocks. The U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan sued 26-year-old Iat Hong, 30-year-old Bo Zheng, and 50-year-old Hung Chin, over a multi-million dollar insider trading scam. According to BBC News , the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged the three hackers targeted 7 different law firms, but managed to installed malware on networks belonging to two law firms only, then compromised their IT admin accounts that gave the trio access to every email account at the firms. Access to the email and web servers allowed them to gain information on planned business mergers and/or acquisitions. The trio then used this information to buy company stock before the deal, and then sell it after the public announcement of the merger ...