Petya-esque ransomware is spreading across the world

UPDATE 6/29/2017 1045 PST: According to information uncovered within Malwarebytes Labs, we have determined that this ransomware variant is coded to erase a unique and randomly generated key that is used to encrypt the MFT Master File Table. The destruction of the Salsa20 key makes it very unlikel...

Dealing with Petya

Akamai is aware of and is tracking the malware threat known as "Petya". Petya is ransomware spread using several methods, including PSexec, Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line WMIC, and the EternalBlue exploit used by the WannaCry family of ransomware. The malware spreads via port 139...

Petya Destructive Malware Variant Spreading via Stolen Credentials and EternalBlue Exploit

UPDATE July 21: FireEye continues to track this threat. An earlier version of this post has been updated to reflect new findings. On June 27, 2017, multiple organizations – many in Europe – reported significant disruptions they are attributing to a variant of the Petya ransomware, which we are...

Protect Your Organization from Petya / NotPetya Ransomware with Carbon Black

Organizations from Russia to Britain were hit by a ransomware attack on Tuesday in a hack with similarities to the recent WannaCry attacks. Initial analysis showed that the malware seen is a recent variant of the Petya ransomware family based upon how it encrypts files and displays its ransom not...

Petya Ransomware Spreading Rapidly Worldwide, Just Like WannaCry

Watch out, readers! It is ransomware, another WannaCry, another wide-spread attack. The WannaCry ransomware is not dead yet and another large scale ransomware attack is making chaos worldwide, shutting down computers at corporates, power supplies, and banks across Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France,...

A week in security (June 19 – June 25)

Last week, we expanded on all the different technologies that Malwarebytes uses to break the attack chain and our Incident Response solution. We also warned you about a Roblox Robux generator scam and a phish targeting customers of Barclays Bank. Below are notable news stories and security-relate...

Svpeng Behind a Spike in Mobile Ransomware

The sting of mobile ransomware grew more painful in 2017 with attacks increasing a whopping 3.5 times in the first quarter compared to the same time a year ago. Behind those attacks were a quarter million Trojan installation packages targeting Android devices that sought to extort between $100 to...

Are All Ransom Attacks Considered Ransomware?

Ransomware has loomed large in the news of late. It seems to be around every turn, and it’s not going anywhere. The untraceability of Bitcoin payments, coupled with new blackhat tools available to anyone at little if any cost, means extortion attempts will continue to grab headlines worldwide. Bu...

UCL Ransomware Linked to AdGholas Malvertising Group

A ransomware attack that closed off access to personal and shared drives at University College London last week has been linked to a malvertising campaign spreading Mole, a variant of CryptoMix ransomware. Kafeine, a white-hat who works for Proofpoint and is known for his research into exploit...

Metadata Analysis Draws its Own Conclusions on WannaCry Authors

The most intriguing mystery that remains about WannaCry is the identity of the attacker. The theory with the best legs is that North Korea’s Lazarus APT is the entity behind the worldwide ransomware outbreak given the discovery of shared code samples in the malware with older Lazarus attacks. Tha...

Jaff Ransomware Decryption Tool Released – Don't Pay, Unlock Files for Free

Hit by Jaff Ransomware? Don't pay the Ransom. You can unlock your files for Free! Kaspersky Labs has released an updated version 1.21.2.1 of its free ransomware decryption tool, RakhniDecryptor, which can now also decrypt files locked by the Jaff ransomware. Security researchers at Kaspersky Labs...

Decryption Utility Unlocks Files Encrypted by Jaff Ransomware

A weakness discovered in Jaff ransomware by researchers has led to the creation of decryption keys to unlock files locked by the malware. “We have found a vulnerability in Jaff’s code for all the variants to date. Thanks to this, it is now possible to recover users’ files encrypted with the .jaff...

Linguistic Analysis Suggests WannaCry Hackers Could be From Southern China

It’s been almost four weeks since the outcry of WannaCry ransomware, but the hackers behind the self-spread ransomware threat have not been identified yet. However, two weeks ago researchers at Google, Kaspersky Lab, Intezer and Symantec linked WannaCry to ‘Lazarus Group,’ a state-sponsored hacki...

Threat Round-up for May 19 - May 26

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 19 and May 26. As with previous round-ups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavior characteristics,...

WannaCry Malware Profile

WannaCry also known as WCry or WanaCryptor malware is a self-propagating worm-like ransomware that spreads through internal networks and over the public internet by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Server Message Block SMB protocol, MS17-010. The WannaCry malware consists of two distinct...

Global ‘Wana’ Ransomware Outbreak Earned Perpetrators $26,000 So Far

As thousands of organizations work to contain and clean up the mess from this week's devastating Wana ransomware attack, the fraudsters responsible for releasing the digital contagion are no doubt counting their earnings and congratulating themselves on a job well done. But according to a review ...

New Jaff Ransomware Part Of Active Necurs Spam Blitz

A new malware family called Jaff has been identified by researchers who say they are currently tracking multiple massive spam campaigns distributing the malware via the Necurs botnet. “It came out of nowhere with a huge bang,” Cisco Talos researchers said Friday In the last 24 hours, the firm has...

WannaCry Ransomware That's Hitting World Right Now Uses NSA Windows Exploit

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...

Hacker leaks 'Orange is the New Black' Season 5 after Netflix refused to Pay Ransom

After releasing 10 back-to-back episodes of the Season 5 premiere of Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black," a hacking group calling itself The Dark Overlord is threatening to leak a trove of other unreleased TV shows and movies. The Dark Overlord TDO posted links to the first 10 episodes of the...

Low Risk Threat: DDoS Extortion Letters

Summary Adversaries calling themselves the Lizard Squad have been sending businesses extortion letters, demanding payment in bitcoin to prevent a Distributed Denial of Service DDoS or other attack against their applications. These letters have been sent to businesses across the globe and across...