Folks,
Mea culpa. It looks more and more like the “ransomware” attacks were not after money, but destruction. That, coupled with the timing in Ukraine right before their Constitution Day, would tend to indicate it was Russian operatives that did this. At first, I assumed that a major attack in Ukraine was Russian-sourced, but as the day unfolded with reports from around the world, I surmised that it was actually NK hackers, making it look like an anti-Ukraine operation, and after even more Bitcoin like the previous wave of ransomware. The fact that there was a major dip in Bitcoin value right before the attack started seemed like an echo from a previous attack.
Well, it looks like I was wrong – the attacks had a poorly-designed ransom function that didn’t work, and in reality, the payload destroyed files of certain types without recording the encryption key used. In other words, it was irreversible – the payload was destructive and not ransomware, it was just built to resemble one. So in this case, paying or not paying had the same result – if you contracted it, your files were toast.
Still, the suggestions I made about updating current systems, using good security software, backups, not clicking on ANY link in email, etc. hold. And, should you be running a dead Windows operating system, do plan to upgrade soon – either get a newer pc, upgrade to Windows 10, or install something like Linux Mint or Ubuntu. Right now, you’re a sitting target with adversaries that are evolving while your old machine likely doesn’t have functional anti-virus software, much less modern defenses built into operating systems.
And now an overdue announcement – tomorrow at noon Eastern, we’ll have part 2 of Boussinesque’s Intro to Oceanography, this time on Ocean Acidification. As a huge fan of all forms of seafood, learning of the effects of this trend on plankton, the root source of all life in the sea, has me quite concerned.
It will be interesting, and he’ll be manning staffing in the comments to answer questions, etc. – thanks to both for nudges
A brief note to mobile site users – expect some changes over the next day or three. I intend to bring a lot of the tweaks and tools from the desktop site to the mobile site, where appropriate. I’m sure some will complain, feel free to do so and I’ll adjust it like always! Should you have any mobile site complaints or suggestions, this is the thread for them; I’ll come back here a few times to see if any late readers have added their 2 cents.
Finally, about 3:30 today I will do some backend tweaking and that may make the site boogered for a few seconds. Should this happen, comments you just submitted might get eaten, so if it’s important, around that time, copy comments to notepad or something in case it doesn’t go through. I’ll comment right before and after the change.
Open thread!