coe-staff: Current Windows RamsomWare attack: WannaCrypt / WannaCry

[Jeff Woodbury]

All,


The aggressive spread of a harmful RansomWare attack called "WannaCrypt" has been reported in industry and popular press. It has affected hospitals, universities, and large companies such as FedEx. The attack spreads among Windows computers that have not recently updated to protect against this vulnerability. You do not have to browse the web or click on anything for this ransomware to spread. It uses the SMB1 protocol to infect  computers that are vulnerable (Please note this vulnerability does not affect MacOS or Linux computers).


Your Windows computer is vulnerable if you are connected to the internet and have not applied the corrective Microsoft updates made available in March.


COEIT has applied rules to protect windows computer that we manage and are connected to the campus network. However COEIT does not have the ability to apply these rules to Windows computers that are not on the campus network or that are "unmanaged"(i.e. your personally owned computers or those that were not configured and deployed by COEIT).


Therefore we need to ask users to run Windows updates ,ASAP, to apply the patches that Microsoft made available in March of this year. you can do this on computers with Windows 8 or earlier by going to the "Control Panel" and clicking on "Windows Updates". For Windows 10 computers, go to "Settings" and then to "Update & Security" to check for updates.


Remember to restart your computer(s) after updates have been successfully applied.


If you have any questions about this issue, please write us at coe-support at ithelp.uoregon.edu


Here are some links providing more detailed information about the Ransomware:


https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/national-health-service-cyberattack-hits-english-hospitals-hackers-demand-bitcoin-n758516


https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/05/u-k-hospitals-hit-in-widespread-ransomware-attack/

?


Jeffrey Woodbury, PhD
Director of Technology, College of Education
University of Oregon
jeffreyw at uoregon.edu


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