Posted on 05/14/2017 11:38:51 AM PDT by Wolfie
The Cost Of Arrogance
I hate having to use this....
Told ya!
It wasn't that long ago that I wrote a few articles on the hubris of our government thinking they were the smartest people in the room when it came to computer hacking. I pointed out that while we undoubtedly have very smart people working for the NSA and other three-letter agencies so do other nations and their people, along with "unaffiliated" folks who are just plain old-fashioned troublemakers, are equally smart.
Indeed, that was the focus of an article from 10/2014 in relation to one of Comey's brain-farts in which he implored Congress to basically force back doors into US-made equipment and software.
Now we get treated to the outcome without the force first, because the NSA was writing that code anyway and a group of crooks got their hands on it, perverted it to force cryptolocker software on computers and is spamming it all over the globe.
How did they get their hands on it? That's the subject of much debate. Many are pointing to the "all Russians, all the time" narrative run by many in the so-called "security industry" (including some who have been caught lying in the past) along with half the left-leaning idiocracy parade that makes up most of the mainstream media punditry.
A more-plausible explanation is that it was an inside job, although in reality it doesn't matter because the entire point is that no matter how good you are someone's equal or better and thus whether they work for you or someone else it only takes one such person with their own motives and you're toast.
What we do know is that the "weaponization" of this apparent NSA code took mere hours after the password to the encrypted archive was posted publicly.
(Excerpt) Read more at market-ticker.org ...
I still DO NOT believe that the Bitcoin payment cannot be tracked. It has to go somewhere and then come back out when it is used by the bad folks.
Partial correct, but it is far more difficult than one might imagine. Here is a good article that explains some of the most important concepts.
https://99bitcoins.com/know-more-using-bitcoin-anonymously/
Basically, if the right precautions are taken, it can be autonomous. However, as this article points out, one has to be VERY careful about other ways of detecting the transaction.
Where does the ransom payments go to? Can these be traced?
.
Bitcoin is essentially not traceable.
.
While I do not believe in coincidences, it seems odd that my computer was hacked yesterday and I had to pay a company $100.00 to get it running again with a year subscription. I have not heard of any individuals being hacked, therefore I have to accept that it was a coincidence?
Sounds suspiciously like you may have been scammed.
What was the name of the company you paid $100 to?
visiontech. I have to say that they really earned their money. they worked on my computer remotely for 6 hours. now it works fine.
They only made about $30K so far. (Bitcoin addresses were hardcoded in the ransomware):
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/05/global-wana-ransomware-outbreak-earned-perpetrators-26000-so-far/
You’re probably aware there are scammers that run fake popups like: “Your Internet Explorer browser and computer may be compromised by security threats. Call 555-555-2291 now for IMMEDIATE assistance.”
Not saying this is one.
my computer just totally shut down due to a “Trojan worm”? No, this is not the number.
Not a coincidence. To me, a coincidence can only be explained by random chance. More likely you were randomly targeted as in the attackers were scanning for vulnerable systems, found yours and executed malware.
Another way to put it, your house (computer) had a windows left open (known exploit via virus or malware) and the crook came in and changed all the locks on the doors (encrypted the drive). To get it running again, you paid a locksmith (guy who broke in???) money to rekey your doors.
good explanation, thx
I think a very good Q for Cruz to ask NSA (he’s on the Senate tech committee) is How much did the politicization of the 40K employees - and pressing them into concentrating on collecting data on political enemies of Obama - affect the security failures that loosed Vault 7 into the public domain/dark web?
Get malwarebytes and pay for it. It works. You can also add this file.
Copy these instructions in Notepad then save as Stop Ransomware.js
Save as: All files
These newer ones have a new delivery method now - Javascript attachments. Since most people have the default turned on in Explorer - not to show file extensions - they will name a file something like Invoice.txt.js. Since the .js extension doesn’t show up, the file looks like Invoice.txt.
Most people will assume that is safe to open. Microsoft doesn’t help much because the default icon for a javascript extension resembles a document icon. People will click on this and it will execute the script, connecting to a download server, fetching the ransomware in the form of a Windows program (an .EXE file), and launching it to complete the infection.
The way to stop this is to create a text file with notepad and rename it with the .js extension. Then right click on it and click on “Open with” then click on “Choose default program” and open with Notepad. If you do not see Notepad then click on the Browse button and go to C:\Windows and you then click on Notepad and make sure “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”.
This way if one accidentally downloads one of these and clicks on it, it won’t run
To show the extension you open a folder then go to Tools> Folder Options> View tab then uncheck Hide extensions for known file types. Now you can see the extension. Remember to check the box after you create the file as described above. I placed my file on the Desktop. Anywhere will do.
I’m ignorant on Windows but why doesn’t it alert you that you are about to run a new app file instead of running anything without warning?
I do not know why Microsoft messes it’s main product up.
Ha!
thanks much for your reply.
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