Powerful Cyber Attack. ‘To hit in the next two weeks’
November, 2014
Could this be one of the world’s biggest and most powerful cyber attacks to date?
Over the last week the news and media have been urging people to protect their machines from malware which allows hackers to steal financial data.
To date, hackers have not been traceable to FBI or other officials however; the botnet system used by the criminals has been temporarily disrupted. The National Crime Agency (NCA) say it’s not long before the system will be functioning again. In another statement by the NCA they commented that individual or businesses running windows based computers are more vulnerable to the attack.
It has been estimated the 500,000 machine worldwide have been compromised and more than 15,500 in the UK are infected with the malware with more at risk.
To really put into perspective the amount of damage this is; US officials say those involved in the attack have raked in more than £60 million already.
The National Crime Agency are urging people to back up all important files and ensure that security systems are in place and up to date.
The software responsible for the attacks is called GOZueS and Cryptolocker. GOZueS silently monitors activity and attempts to capture bank details and information. Cryptolocker seeks to lock the users file and threatens to delete them unless a ransom is paid. The latter is the reason for NCA warnings to back up all important documents.
On a brighter note US and other agents allegedly freed over 300,000 computers over the weekend from the infection, but the worry is how long until it happens again.
With more and more cases of cyber attacks becoming more serious and more powerful, maybe now is the time to consider being covered for Cyber Insurance?
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