![]() ![]() Those hit by WannaCry also failed to heed warnings last year from Microsoft to disable a file sharing feature in Windows known as SMB, which a covert hacker group calling itself Shadow Brokers had claimed was used by NSA intelligence operatives to sneak into Windows PCs. Windows 10, the latest version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system franchise, accounts for another 15 percent, while older versions of Windows including 8.1, 8, XP and Vista, account for the remainder, BitSight estimated.Īny organisation which heeded strongly worded warnings from Microsoft to urgently install a security patch it labelled “critical” when it was released on March 14 on all computers on their networks are immune, experts agree. In laboratory testing, researchers at MWR and Kyptos say they have found Windows XP crashes before the virus can spread. ![]() WannaCry’s worm-like capacity to infect other computers on the same network with no human intervention appear tailored to Windows 7, said Paul Pratley, head of investigations & incident response at UK consulting firm MWR InfoSecurity.ĭata from BitSight covering 160,000 internet-connected computers hit by WannaCry, shows that Windows 7 accounts for 67 percent of infections, although it represents less than half of the global distribution of Windows PC users.Ĭomputers running older versions, such as Windows XP used in Britain’s NHS health system, while individually vulnerable to attack, appear incapable of spreading infections and played a far smaller role in the global attack than initially reported. “There are plenty of reasons people wait to patch and none of them are good,” said Mador, a former long-time security researcher for Microsoft. “Some organisations just aren’t aware of the risks some don’t want to risk interrupting important business processes sometimes they are short-staffed,” said Ziv Mador, vice president of security research at Trustwave’s Israeli SpiderLabs unit. ![]() Security experts warn that while computers at more than 300,000 internet addresses were hit by the ransomware strain, further attacks that fix weaknesses in WannaCry will follow that hit larger numbers of users, with more devastating consequences. ![]()
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