What Is WannaCry Ransomware Attacks 2017?
WannaCry, One of the Ransomware Attacks in 2017
WannaCry - a worldwide spread malware occurred on Windows 7/8/10/ XP, etc in May 2017 which is one of the ransomware attacks today and affected many organizations and companies via the vulnerability of Windows system.
Once your computer has been attacked, you can't access any important files unless you pay 300 dollars worth of bitcoin at the time of infection. If you don't, the ransom will increase to 600 dollars after three days. And seven days later, you will lose all your files if you still don't pay it.
The Influence of Ransomware WannaCry
Recently, you can hear ransomware WannaCry here and there. Thus, we need to be aware of its influence. In the event of ransomware WannaCry, the malicious people only use two NSA exploits, However, it leads to a great disturbance.
Up to now, the ransomware WannaCry has hit at least 150 countries including Britain, China, Russia, Germany, and Spain etc, and infected over 230,000 computers coming from hospitals, universities, manufacturers and government agencies, etc.
The Prime Targets of Ransomware Attack in 2017
From this experience, the prime targets of ransomware is an increasingly concerning question most people want to know. In this case, most of the attacked computer comes from hospitals, universities, manufacturers and government agencies, etc. Thus, there are some potential targets you need to know.
1. Any organization needs to access critical data every day. Because they can't afford to be locked out of their data. At the same time, they are supposed to be the ones who will worry about ransomware the most. That's to say, banks, hospitals, Congress, police departments, airlines, airports, etc are likely to be the victim of ransomware.
2. To a degree, any large corporation or government agency containing critical infrastructure is also at risk.
3. Individual computer sometimes is a target. If you can't put a patch regularly for your computer or upgrade it to the latest version, you may be the next victim.
How does Ransomware Work?
On a webpage, you can see attackers take the security hole of the Windows system as a weapon to attack companies or organizations which need to access critical data every day.
Aside from that, some unnecessary ports like 445, 135, 137,139, etc are possible to be a way attackers may make full use of. You can choose to block port 445 or others in Windows.
Prevention Measures for WannaCry Ransomware or Similar Attack
When we encounter ransomware, here is WannaCry, we still can do something to solve it.
1. Don't click these suspicious Emails and Links. We are possible to receive many emails containing links, if you are not sure the email is safe, you would better not click it. Because the email or links may contain a virus.
2. Install a ransomware attack patch on the computer. To security holes, you are supposed to put patches regularly. Because your important files or folders etc are stored on your computer. Once something bad happens, you will lose them forever. At the same time, running whitelisting software on machines can resist attacks to some extent since the lists won't let your computer install anything that's not already approved.
3. Install antivirus software. Antivirus software can detect viruses in a way. Thus, regularly checking your computer can reduce the possibility of a virus attack.
4. Block unnecessary ports 445 in Windows. In the computer, there are some unnecessary ports opened by the Windows system you need to close, including 445/135/137/139 on Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003/2008. If you don't block them, malicious people may attack your computer via these ports.
5. Disconnect the computer. To against further infection, administrators will immediately disconnect infected systems from corporate network, and disable WiFi and Bluetooth on machines.
The Core Strategy to Prevent Data Loss Even in Ransomware
I'm sorry that even if you do all the above precautions, you still need to be careful. Because you only have one copy of the files and if your computer is attacked, you will lose your data again or pay a ransom, just like in WannaCry Ransomware.
- The suspicious emails or links may become more and more complex and you cannot recognize them.
- Sometimes, putting patches can be forgotten.
- Antivirus software is not perfect, which may not recognize all the viruses.
- ...
And, from this experience, we can clearly get that the Windows system is not perfect and malicious people may exploit security holes to attack our computers. So we can't depend on it too much.
The best way to prevent it or similar errors is to follow the 3-2-1 backup strategies - keep 3 backup copies at least, on 2 different locations and one offsite. Thus, you will always have a copy of your files even if your computer is attacked. You need the help of the best free auto backup software - Qiling Disk Master Standard. With it, you can:
- Backup files to external hard drive (HDD or SSD), USB drive, network drive or NAS, cloud drive like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.
- Run backup task automatically with its schedule backup feature. You can use the daily, weekly, or monthly settings, if you change files frequently, you still be able to run it hourly under daily.
- Keep track of only changed files with incremental backup to save backup time and disk space. Also, this software will compress backup image to smaller automatically, backup only used sectors of file system, etc.
To prevent data loss even in Ransomware, please Qiling Disk Master Standard and install it.
(Note: The free version only supports Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, and Vista. For server users, try Qiling Disk Master server!)
Step 1: Launch Qiling Disk Master Standard, click Backup, and then File Backup.
Step 3: Click Folders or Files and select the files or folders you want to backup.
Tip: Optionally, you can click Filter settings to backup files with a certain file extension, it is displayed as a funnel shape and allows you to include or exclude files or folders. This feature is available on the professional version.
Step 4: Select a location to store your files or folders. As you can see below, you have several choices.
- Click Select a local path to backup files to external hard drive like HDD or SSD, USB drive, etc. Please remember to connect them before you run this software.
- Click Add Share or NAS Device to backup Windows 10 to network drive or NAS device, such as backup file to Synology NAS.
- Click Select a cloud drive to backup local folder to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, OneBox, and more. It requires you to install and configure cloud drive in advance.
Step 5: After the above steps finish, click Proceed to continue the rest of the work. To prevent any data loss, you need to set Options, Schedule Backup and Backup Scheme optionally.
- Click Options, you can write a comment, change compression level, enable email notification, etc. On the professional version, it's able to enable passwords for a backup task.
- Click Schedule Backup and enable it, you can run system backup every day, weekly or monthly at a specific time, date, or intervals. The USB plug in feature is recommended to copy files automatically when USB connected.
- Optionally, on the professional version, you can change the backup method (to differential backup) and enable automatic backup cleanup methods. It's the most thorough way to manage disk space and ensure there is always space for new backups.
Tip:
1. Except for file backup, this software still supports system backup, disk backup, and partition backup. You can choose them based on the items you want to protect.
2. If you want to keep files or folders in their original structure, so you can use them at any time, try File Sync or premium features like File Sync, File Sync, and File sync.
Summary
WannaCry ransomware attack 2017 encrypted computers for a large number of organizations, corporations, government agencies, and individuals, and ask them to pay a ransom, otherwise it will delete all the data on their computers after 7 days.
If you don't want to be a victim of a ransomware attack, you need to take potential measures and backup files followed by 3-2-1 backup strategies. To backup files on multiple computers, you could create a portable version of this software with its technician or techplus edition and then run it from a removable device.
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