Bloody hell … !
Have you been following the news?
If you have, you’ll have seen the news that quite a lot of NHS Trusts have been hit by a major ransomware attack.
That, so far, has affected systems in ninety-nine different counties.
There’s a story behind it.
It seems the code the attack used? Was based on an exploit released by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers: and that was originally written or developed by the USA’s National Security Agency.
And one that Microsoft issued a patch for, in March.
The problems seem to have affected PCs running versions of Windows from Vista, up to Windows 8.1, that HADN’T had the software updated: and machines running Windows XP, that hadn’t been replaced and couldn’t deal with the update, anyway.
There’s possibly a lot to say about this.
I think one of the reasons this has happened?
Is simply the fact that a cash strapped NHS hasn’t been able — or has chosen not — to update older machines with a lot of propriety software.
On grounds of cost.
Which, of course, means it’s going to be spending a fortune. Either on paying the ransom to free up a LOT of data, or on doing the IT dog-work to restore a lot of data from back-ups.
That’s possibly something any one who gets into government, after June 8th, will need to look at doing.
I’m ALSO thinking that the virus is just affecting Windows based PCs.
Mac fan that I am, part of me is cynically pointing out this is a good reason for large organisations to buy Apple, instead of PCs.
Realistically? I have to admit Microsoft aren’t at fault, here: they have, after all, done their bit and got the various security updates out.
Equally as realistically? I believe the attacks show that, yes, large organisations need a bit more diversity in the computers they used.
Companies that make business software need to make versions for as many different operating systems as possible: so large organisations can chose whatever operating systems they prefer, whether Windows, MacOS or a Linux distro.
And that IT departments, AND home users? Need to make sure they have back-ups in place.
And keep their systems updated*.
~≈Â≈~
