Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said cyber crime has become an industry globally and that such offences may occur &quot;very often&quot; due to the availability of resources in wrong hands.

Singh also said penetration of Internet and self-radicalisation have further added to the woes of law enforcement agencies and that continuance of the availability of radicalised materials on the Internet is likely to have a drastic change in society and subsequently to humanity.

Inaugurating a two-day Asia-Pacific regional conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) on &quot;Challenges to Policing in 2020- How is Cyber Space shaping our approach to Cyber crime &amp; Terrorism, how do we perform within it and take advantage of it&quot;, the home minister said cyber security network outages, data compromised by hackers, computer malware and other cyber-related incidents and crimes have affected people&#39;s lives.

&quot;I am afraid, cyber attack would occur very often. Tools already exist to mount cyber attacks and they will be improving over the next decade. We have already witnessed an increase in the number and severity of such attacks,&quot; he said.

Singh said cyber crime has become an industry and many cyber crimes-related tools and techniques are being offered as services. Even novice criminal with limited investments of money can afford to have such services at his disposal.

&quot;The increase in digitisation of the financial services with inadequate attention to setting up of a robust process, controls and monitoring mechanisms has given new age fraudsters the opportunity to exploit these gaps leading to new types of financial crimes,&quot; he said.

The home minister said the new age technologies such as the internet of things, virtual currencies, advanced malware, artificial intelligence, etc. Are fast spreading its tentacles. The police are now expected to cope with such rapidly changing technologies, as well.

&quot;Across many countries many cyber criminals uses technologies like darknet, proxy servers, The Onion Router (TOR) services to hide their identity. Extensive use of VolP, caller ID spoofing, use of crypto currencies, encrypted channel for communication, use of social media have virtually created syndicates of criminals irrespective of their nationality,&quot; he said.

Singh said in the fast-changing technology world, computer-based technologies are being increasingly used in various activities ranging from simple home security system to complex nuclear power plants or space programs.

&quot;The cyber-dependency has become widespread today. This has increased vulnerability to attacks against both civilian and military infrastructures,&quot; he said.

The home minister said the governments, defence forces, corporations, financial institutions, utility services, hospitals and other businesses collect, process and store a great deal of sensitive information on systems and transmit data across networks.

&quot;With the growing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, each one of us is required to protect sensitive information, as well as safeguard national security,&quot; he said.

Singh said there are many risks, some more serious than others, like viruses, computer hacking, pilferage of data, stealing of credit card information, etc.

&quot;Unfortunately, there is no 100 per cent guarantee that even with the best precautions some of these things won&#39;t happen to you, but there are steps you can take to minimize the chances,&quot; he said.

"I am afraid, cyber attack would occur very often. Tools already exist to mount cyber attacks and they will be improving over the next decade. We have already witnessed an increase in the number and severity of such attacks," he said

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said cyber crime has become an industry globally and that such offences may occur "very often" due to the availability of resources in wrong hands. Singh also said penetration of Internet and self-radicalisation have further added to the woes of law enforcement agencies and that continuance of the availability of radicalised materials on the Internet is likely to have a drastic change in society and subsequently to humanity. Inaugurating a two-day Asia-Pacific regional conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) on "Challenges to Policing in 2020- How is Cyber Space shaping our approach to Cyber crime & Terrorism, how do we perform within it and take advantage of it", the home minister said cyber security network outages, data compromised by hackers, computer malware and other cyber-related incidents and crimes have affected people's lives. "I am afraid, cyber attack would occur very often. Tools already exist to mount cyber attacks and they will be improving over the next decade. We have already witnessed an increase in the number and severity of such attacks," he said. Singh said cyber crime has become an industry and many cyber crimes-related tools and techniques are being offered as services. Even novice criminal with limited investments of money can afford to have such services at his disposal. "The increase in digitisation of the financial services with inadequate attention to setting up of a robust process, controls and monitoring mechanisms has given new age fraudsters the opportunity to exploit these gaps leading to new types of financial crimes," he said. The home minister said the new age technologies such as the internet of things, virtual currencies, advanced malware, artificial intelligence, etc. Are fast spreading its tentacles. The police are now expected to cope with such rapidly changing technologies, as well. "Across many countries many cyber criminals uses technologies like darknet, proxy servers, The Onion Router (TOR) services to hide their identity. Extensive use of VolP, caller ID spoofing, use of crypto currencies, encrypted channel for communication, use of social media have virtually created syndicates of criminals irrespective of their nationality," he said. Singh said in the fast-changing technology world, computer-based technologies are being increasingly used in various activities ranging from simple home security system to complex nuclear power plants or space programs. "The cyber-dependency has become widespread today. This has increased vulnerability to attacks against both civilian and military infrastructures," he said. The home minister said the governments, defence forces, corporations, financial institutions, utility services, hospitals and other businesses collect, process and store a great deal of sensitive information on systems and transmit data across networks. "With the growing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, each one of us is required to protect sensitive information, as well as safeguard national security," he said. Singh said there are many risks, some more serious than others, like viruses, computer hacking, pilferage of data, stealing of credit card information, etc. "Unfortunately, there is no 100 per cent guarantee that even with the best precautions some of these things won't happen to you, but there are steps you can take to minimize the chances," he said.

Cybercrime is becoming an industry: Rajnath Singh

Two-thirds of those caught up in the past week&#39;s global ransomware attack were running Microsoft&#39;s Windows 7 operating system without the latest security updates, a survey for Reuters by security ratings firm BitSight found.

Researchers are struggling to try to find early traces of WannaCry, which remains an active threat in hardest-hit China and Russia, believing that identifying &quot;patient zero&quot; could help catch its criminal authors.

They are having more luck dissecting flaws that limited its spread.

Security experts warn that while computers at more than 3,00,000 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.

&quot;Some organisations just aren&#39;t aware of the risks; some don&#39;t want to risk interrupting important business processes; sometimes they are short-staffed,&quot; said Ziv Mador, vice president of security research at Israel&#39;s SpiderLabs Trustwave.

&quot;There are plenty of reasons people wait to patch and none of them are good,&quot; said Mador, a former long-time security researcher for Microsoft.

WannaCry&#39;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 &amp; incident response at UK consulting firm MWR InfoSecurity.

Data from BitSight covering 160,000 internet-connected computers hit by WannaCry, shows that Windows 7 accounts for 67 per cent of infections, although it represents less than half of the global distribution of Windows PC users.

Computers running older versions, such as Windows XP used in Britain&#39;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.

In laboratory testing, researchers at MWR and Kyptos say they have found Windows XP crashes before the virus can spread.

Windows 10, the latest version of Microsoft&#39;s flagship operating system franchise, accounts for another 15 per cent, while older versions of Windows including 8.1, 8, XP and Vista, account for the remainder, BitSight estimated.

Computer basics

Any organisation which heeded strongly worded warnings from Microsoft to urgently install a security patch it labelled &ldquo;critical&rdquo; when it was released on March 14 on all computers on their networks are immune, experts agree.

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.

&quot;Clearly people who run supported versions of Windows and patched quickly were not affected&quot;, Trustwave&#39;s Mador said.

Microsoft has faced criticism since 2014 for withdrawing support for older versions of Windows software such as 16-year-old Windows XP and requiring users to pay hefty annual fees instead. The British government cancelled a nationwide NHS support contract with Microsoft after a year, leaving upgrades to local trusts.

Seeking to head off further criticism in the wake of the WannaCry outbreak, the US&nbsp;software giant last weekend released a free patch for Windows XP and other older Windows versions that it previously only offered to paying customers.

Microsoft declined to comment for this story.

On Sunday, the US&nbsp;software giant called on intelligence services to strike a better balance between their desire to keep software flaws secret - in order to conduct espionage and cyber warfare - and sharing those flaws with technology companies to better secure the internet.

Half of all internet addresses corrupted globally by WannaCry are located in China and Russia, with 30 and 20 per cent respectively. Infection levels spiked again in both countries this week and remained high through Thursday, according to data supplied to Reuters by threat intelligence firm Kryptos Logic.

By contrast, the United States accounts for 7 per cent of WannaCry infections while Britain, France and Germany each represent just 2 per cent of worldwide attacks, Kryptos said.

Dumb and sophisticated

The ransomware mixes copycat software loaded with amateur coding mistakes and recently leaked spy tools widely believed to have been stolen from the US&nbsp;National Security Agency, creating a vastly potent class of crimeware.

&quot;What really makes the magnitude of this attack so much greater than any other is that the intent has changed from information stealing to business disruption&quot;, said Samil Neino, 32, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Kryptos Logic.

Last Friday, the company&#39;s British-based 22-year-old data breach research chief, Marcus Hutchins, created a &quot;kill-switch&quot;, which security experts have widely hailed as the decisive step in halting the ransomware&#39;s rapid spread around the globe.

WannaCry appears to target mainly enterprises rather than consumers: Once it infects one machine, it silently proliferates across internal networks which can connect hundreds or thousands of machines in large firms, unlike individual consumers at home.

An unknown number of computers sit behind the 3,00,000 infected internet connections identified by Kryptos.

Because of the way WannaCry spreads sneakily inside organisation networks, a far larger total of ransomed computers sitting behind company firewalls may be hit, possibly numbering upward of a million machines. The company is crunching data to arrive at a firmer estimate it aims to release later Thursday.

Liran Eshel, chief executive of cloud storage provider CTERA Networks, said: &quot;The attack shows how sophisticated ransomware has become, forcing even unaffected organisations to rethink strategies.&quot;

Escape route

Researchers from a variety of security firms say they have so far failed to find a way to decrypt files locked up by WannaCry and say chances are low anyone will succeed.

However, a bug in WannaCry code means the attackers cannot use unique bitcoin addresses to track payments, security researchers at Symantec found this week. The result: &quot;Users unlikely to get files restored&quot;, the company&#39;s Security Response team tweeted.

The rapid recovery by many organisations with unpatched computers caught out by the attack may largely be attributed to back-up and retrieval procedures they had in place, enabling technicians to re-image infected machines, experts said.

While encrypting individual computers it infects, WannaCry code does not attack network data-backup systems, as more sophisticated ransomware packages typically do, security experts who have studied WannaCry code agree.

These factors help explain the mystery of why such a tiny number of victims appear to have paid ransoms into the three bitcoin accounts to which WannaCry directs victims.

Less than 300 payments worth around $83,000 had been paid into WannaCry blackmail accounts by Thursday (1800 GMT), six days after the attack began and one day before the ransomware threatens to start locking up victim computers forever.

The Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, the most comprehensive annual survey of security breakdowns, found that it takes three months before at least half of organisations install major new software security patches.

WannaCry landed nine weeks after Microsoft&#39;s patch arrived.

&quot;The same things are causing the same problems. That&#39;s what the data shows,&quot; MWR research head Pratley said.

&quot;We haven&#39;t seen many organisations fall over and that&#39;s because they did some of the security basics,&quot; he said.

(Reuters)

Researchers are struggling to try to find early traces of WannaCry

Two-thirds of those caught up in the past week's global ransomware attack were running Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system without the latest security updates, a survey for Reuters by security ratings firm BitSight found. Researchers are struggling to try to find early traces of WannaCry, which remains an active threat in hardest-hit China and Russia, believing that identifying "patient zero" could help catch its criminal authors. They are having more luck dissecting flaws that limited its spread. Security experts warn that while computers at more than 3,00,000 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. "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 Israel's SpiderLabs Trustwave. "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. 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. Data from BitSight covering 160,000 internet-connected computers hit by WannaCry, shows that Windows 7 accounts for 67 per cent of infections, although it represents less than half of the global distribution of Windows PC users. Computers 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. In laboratory testing, researchers at MWR and Kyptos say they have found Windows XP crashes before the virus can spread. Windows 10, the latest version of Microsoft's flagship operating system franchise, accounts for another 15 per cent, while older versions of Windows including 8.1, 8, XP and Vista, account for the remainder, BitSight estimated. Computer basics Any 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. 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. "Clearly people who run supported versions of Windows and patched quickly were not affected", Trustwave's Mador said. Microsoft has faced criticism since 2014 for withdrawing support for older versions of Windows software such as 16-year-old Windows XP and requiring users to pay hefty annual fees instead. The British government cancelled a nationwide NHS support contract with Microsoft after a year, leaving upgrades to local trusts. Seeking to head off further criticism in the wake of the WannaCry outbreak, the US software giant last weekend released a free patch for Windows XP and other older Windows versions that it previously only offered to paying customers. Microsoft declined to comment for this story. On Sunday, the US software giant called on intelligence services to strike a better balance between their desire to keep software flaws secret - in order to conduct espionage and cyber warfare - and sharing those flaws with technology companies to better secure the internet. Half of all internet addresses corrupted globally by WannaCry are located in China and Russia, with 30 and 20 per cent respectively. Infection levels spiked again in both countries this week and remained high through Thursday, according to data supplied to Reuters by threat intelligence firm Kryptos Logic. By contrast, the United States accounts for 7 per cent of WannaCry infections while Britain, France and Germany each represent just 2 per cent of worldwide attacks, Kryptos said. Dumb and sophisticated The ransomware mixes copycat software loaded with amateur coding mistakes and recently leaked spy tools widely believed to have been stolen from the US National Security Agency, creating a vastly potent class of crimeware. "What really makes the magnitude of this attack so much greater than any other is that the intent has changed from information stealing to business disruption", said Samil Neino, 32, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Kryptos Logic. Last Friday, the company's British-based 22-year-old data breach research chief, Marcus Hutchins, created a "kill-switch", which security experts have widely hailed as the decisive step in halting the ransomware's rapid spread around the globe. WannaCry appears to target mainly enterprises rather than consumers: Once it infects one machine, it silently proliferates across internal networks which can connect hundreds or thousands of machines in large firms, unlike individual consumers at home. An unknown number of computers sit behind the 3,00,000 infected internet connections identified by Kryptos. Because of the way WannaCry spreads sneakily inside organisation networks, a far larger total of ransomed computers sitting behind company firewalls may be hit, possibly numbering upward of a million machines. The company is crunching data to arrive at a firmer estimate it aims to release later Thursday. Liran Eshel, chief executive of cloud storage provider CTERA Networks, said: "The attack shows how sophisticated ransomware has become, forcing even unaffected organisations to rethink strategies." Escape route Researchers from a variety of security firms say they have so far failed to find a way to decrypt files locked up by WannaCry and say chances are low anyone will succeed. However, a bug in WannaCry code means the attackers cannot use unique bitcoin addresses to track payments, security researchers at Symantec found this week. The result: "Users unlikely to get files restored", the company's Security Response team tweeted. The rapid recovery by many organisations with unpatched computers caught out by the attack may largely be attributed to back-up and retrieval procedures they had in place, enabling technicians to re-image infected machines, experts said. While encrypting individual computers it infects, WannaCry code does not attack network data-backup systems, as more sophisticated ransomware packages typically do, security experts who have studied WannaCry code agree. These factors help explain the mystery of why such a tiny number of victims appear to have paid ransoms into the three bitcoin accounts to which WannaCry directs victims. Less than 300 payments worth around $83,000 had been paid into WannaCry blackmail accounts by Thursday (1800 GMT), six days after the attack began and one day before the ransomware threatens to start locking up victim computers forever. The Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, the most comprehensive annual survey of security breakdowns, found that it takes three months before at least half of organisations install major new software security patches. WannaCry landed nine weeks after Microsoft's patch arrived. "The same things are causing the same problems. That's what the data shows," MWR research head Pratley said. "We haven't seen many organisations fall over and that's because they did some of the security basics," he said. (Reuters)

WannaCry: Security experts find clues to ransomware worm's lingering risks

Governments turned their attention to a possible new wave of cyber threats after the group that leaked US&nbsp;hacking tools used to launch the global WannaCry &quot;ransomware&quot; attack warned it would release more malicious code.

The fast-spreading cyber extortion campaign, which has infected more than 3,00,000 computers worldwide since Friday, eased for second day on Tuesday, but the identity and motive of its creators remain unknown.

The attack includes elements that belong to the US&nbsp;National Security Agency and were leaked online last month.

Shadow Brokers, the group that has taken credit for that leak, threatened on Tuesday to release more recent code to enable hackers to break into the world&#39;s most widely used computers, software and phones.

A blog post written by the group promised from June to release tools every month to anyone willing to pay for access to some of the tech world&#39;s biggest commercial secrets.

It also threatened to dump data from banks using the SWIFT international money transfer network and from Russian, Chinese, Iranian or North Korean nuclear and missile programs. &quot;More details in June,&quot; it promised.

The spread of the WannaCry attack - which encrypts a user&#39;s data and demands a &quot;ransom&quot; be paid electronically to free it up again - slowed to a trickle on Tuesday, with few, isolated examples being reported.

In Canada, the Universite de Montreal was hit, with 120 of the French-language university&rsquo;s 8,300 computers affected, according to a university spokeswoman.

There were no new, major incidents in the United States. Fewer than 10 US&nbsp;organisations have reported attacks to the Department of Homeland Security since Friday, a US&nbsp;official told reporters on Tuesday.

The attack has caused most damage in Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and India, according to Czech security firm Avast.

The United States likely avoided greater harm as the attack targeted older versions of Microsoft&#39;s Windows operating system, and more US&nbsp;users have licensed, up-to-date, patched versions of the software, compared to other regions of the world.

The Department of Homeland Security began an &quot;aggressive awareness campaign&quot; to alert the tech industry to the importance of installing the patch that Microsoft issued in March that protected users from the vulnerability exploited by the attack, a US&nbsp;official working on the attack told Reuters.

Microsoft said on Tuesday it was aware of Shadow Brokers&#39; most recent claim and that its security teams monitor potential threats in order to &quot;help us prioritise and take appropriate action.&quot;

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said earlier this week the WannaCry attack used elements stolen from the NSA. The US&nbsp;government has not commented directly on the matter.

North Korea link probed

Cyber security researchers around the world have said they have found evidence that could link North Korea with the WannaCry cyber attack.

A researcher from South Korea&#39;s Hauri Labs said on Tuesday their own findings matched those of Symantecand Kaspersky, who said on Monday that some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programs used by the Lazarus Group, identified by some researchers as a North Korea-run hacking operation.

&quot;It is similar to North Korea&#39;s backdoor malicious codes,&quot; said Simon Choi, a senior researcher with Hauri who has done extensive research into North Korea&#39;s hacking capabilities and advises South Korean police and National Intelligence Service.

Both Symantec and Kaspersky said it was too early to tell whether North Korea was involved in the attacks, based on the evidence that was published on Twitter by Google security researcher Neel Mehta.

FireEye, another large cyber security firm, said it was also investigating, but it was cautious about drawing a link to North Korea.

&quot;The similarities we see between malware linked to that group and WannaCry are not unique enough to be strongly suggestive of a common operator,&quot; FireEye researcher John Miller said.

US&nbsp;and European security officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was too early to say who might be behind the attacks, but they did not rule out North Korea as a suspect.

The Lazarus hackers, acting for impoverished North Korea, have been more brazen in their pursuit of financial gain than others, and have been blamed for the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank, according to some cyber security firms. The United States accused it of being behind a cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014.

North Korea has denied being behind the Sony and banking attacks. North Korean officials were not immediately available for comment and its state media has been quiet about the matter.

No information to share

In China, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information to share, when asked about the origin of the attack and whether North Korea might be connected.

Several Asian countries have been affected by the malware, although the impact has not been as widespread as some had feared.

In Malaysia, cyber security firm LE Global Services said it identified 12 cases so far, including a large government-linked corporation, a government-linked investment firm and an insurance company. It did not name any of the entities.

&quot;We may not see the real picture yet, as companies are not mandated to disclose security breaches to authorities in Malaysia,&quot; said LE Global CEO Fong Choong Fook.

&quot;The real situation may be serious. In one of the cases, the attack was traced back to early April.&quot;

Vietnam&#39;s state media said on Tuesday more than 200 computers had been affected, but one of the country&#39;s leading anti virus companies, Bkav, later put the figure at 1,900.

Taiwan Power said that nearly 800 of its computers were affected, although these were used for administration, not for systems involved in electricity generation.

(Reuters)

The fast-spreading cyber extortion campaign has infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide

Governments turned their attention to a possible new wave of cyber threats after the group that leaked US hacking tools used to launch the global WannaCry "ransomware" attack warned it would release more malicious code. The fast-spreading cyber extortion campaign, which has infected more than 3,00,000 computers worldwide since Friday, eased for second day on Tuesday, but the identity and motive of its creators remain unknown. The attack includes elements that belong to the US National Security Agency and were leaked online last month. Shadow Brokers, the group that has taken credit for that leak, threatened on Tuesday to release more recent code to enable hackers to break into the world's most widely used computers, software and phones. A blog post written by the group promised from June to release tools every month to anyone willing to pay for access to some of the tech world's biggest commercial secrets. It also threatened to dump data from banks using the SWIFT international money transfer network and from Russian, Chinese, Iranian or North Korean nuclear and missile programs. "More details in June," it promised. The spread of the WannaCry attack - which encrypts a user's data and demands a "ransom" be paid electronically to free it up again - slowed to a trickle on Tuesday, with few, isolated examples being reported. In Canada, the Universite de Montreal was hit, with 120 of the French-language university’s 8,300 computers affected, according to a university spokeswoman. There were no new, major incidents in the United States. Fewer than 10 US organisations have reported attacks to the Department of Homeland Security since Friday, a US official told reporters on Tuesday. The attack has caused most damage in Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and India, according to Czech security firm Avast. The United States likely avoided greater harm as the attack targeted older versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system, and more US users have licensed, up-to-date, patched versions of the software, compared to other regions of the world. The Department of Homeland Security began an "aggressive awareness campaign" to alert the tech industry to the importance of installing the patch that Microsoft issued in March that protected users from the vulnerability exploited by the attack, a US official working on the attack told Reuters. Microsoft said on Tuesday it was aware of Shadow Brokers' most recent claim and that its security teams monitor potential threats in order to "help us prioritise and take appropriate action." Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said earlier this week the WannaCry attack used elements stolen from the NSA. The US government has not commented directly on the matter. North Korea link probed Cyber security researchers around the world have said they have found evidence that could link North Korea with the WannaCry cyber attack. A researcher from South Korea's Hauri Labs said on Tuesday their own findings matched those of Symantecand Kaspersky, who said on Monday that some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programs used by the Lazarus Group, identified by some researchers as a North Korea-run hacking operation. "It is similar to North Korea's backdoor malicious codes," said Simon Choi, a senior researcher with Hauri who has done extensive research into North Korea's hacking capabilities and advises South Korean police and National Intelligence Service. Both Symantec and Kaspersky said it was too early to tell whether North Korea was involved in the attacks, based on the evidence that was published on Twitter by Google security researcher Neel Mehta. FireEye, another large cyber security firm, said it was also investigating, but it was cautious about drawing a link to North Korea. "The similarities we see between malware linked to that group and WannaCry are not unique enough to be strongly suggestive of a common operator," FireEye researcher John Miller said. US and European security officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was too early to say who might be behind the attacks, but they did not rule out North Korea as a suspect. The Lazarus hackers, acting for impoverished North Korea, have been more brazen in their pursuit of financial gain than others, and have been blamed for the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank, according to some cyber security firms. The United States accused it of being behind a cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014. North Korea has denied being behind the Sony and banking attacks. North Korean officials were not immediately available for comment and its state media has been quiet about the matter. No information to share In China, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information to share, when asked about the origin of the attack and whether North Korea might be connected. Several Asian countries have been affected by the malware, although the impact has not been as widespread as some had feared. In Malaysia, cyber security firm LE Global Services said it identified 12 cases so far, including a large government-linked corporation, a government-linked investment firm and an insurance company. It did not name any of the entities. "We may not see the real picture yet, as companies are not mandated to disclose security breaches to authorities in Malaysia," said LE Global CEO Fong Choong Fook. "The real situation may be serious. In one of the cases, the attack was traced back to early April." Vietnam's state media said on Tuesday more than 200 computers had been affected, but one of the country's leading anti virus companies, Bkav, later put the figure at 1,900. Taiwan Power said that nearly 800 of its computers were affected, although these were used for administration, not for systems involved in electricity generation. (Reuters)

WannaCry: Cyber attack eases, but hacking group threatens to sell code

Cybersecurity researchers have found evidence they say could link North Korea with the WannaCry cyber attack that has infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide, as global authorities scrambled to prevent hackers from spreading new versions of the virus.&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/the-anonymous-whiz-kid-who-foiled-the-global-cyberattack-15634">Also Read: The anonymous whiz kid who foiled the global cyberattack</a>)

A researcher from South Korea&#39;s Hauri Labs said on Tuesday their own findings matched those of Symantec and Kaspersky Lab, who said on Monday that some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programmes used by the Lazarus Group, identified by some researchers as a North Korea-run hacking operation.

&quot;It is similar to North Korea&#39;s backdoor malicious codes,&quot; said Simon Choi, a senior researcher with Hauri who has done extensive research into North Korea&#39;s hacking capabilities and advises South Korean police and National Intelligence Service.

Both Symantec and Kaspersky said it was too early to tell whether North Korea was involved in the attacks, based on the evidence that was published on Twitter by Google security researcher Neel Mehta.

The attacks, which slowed on Monday, are among the fastest-spreading extortion campaigns on record.

In China, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information to share, when asked about the origin of the attack and whether North Korea might be connected.

Several Asian countries have been affected by the malware, although the impact has not been as widespread as some had feared.

In Malaysia, cybersecurity firm LE Global Services said it identified 12 cases so far, including a large government-linked corporation, a government-linked investment firm and an insurance company. It did not name any of the entities.

&quot;We may not see the real picture yet, as companies are not mandated to disclose security breaches to authorities in Malaysia,&quot; said LE Global CEO Fong Choong Fook.

&quot;The real situation may be serious. In one of the cases, the attack was traced back to early April.&quot;

Vietnam&#39;s state media said on Tuesday more than 200 computers had been affected.

Taiwan Power Co. said that nearly 800 of its computers were affected, although these were used for administration, not for systems involved in electricity generation.

Experts urge caution

FireEye Inc, another large cyber security firm, said it was also investigating, but it was cautious about drawing a link to North Korea.

&quot;The similarities we see between malware linked to that group and WannaCry are not unique enough to be strongly suggestive of a common operator,&quot; FireEye researcher John Miller said.

US&nbsp;and European security officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was too early to say who might be behind the attacks, but they did not rule out North Korea as a suspect.

The Lazarus hackers, acting for impoverished North Korea, have been more brazen in their pursuit of financial gain than others, and have been blamed for the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank, according to some cyber security firms. The United States accused it of being behind a cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014.

An official at South Korea&#39;s Korea Internet &amp; Security Agency said on Tuesday the agency was sharing information with intelligence officials on recent cases reported for damages but was not in position to investigate the source of the attack.

The official declined to comment on intelligence-related matters.

A South Korean police official that handles investigations into hacking and cyber breaches said he was aware of reports on the North Korean link, but said police were not investigating yet.

Victims haven&#39;t requested investigations but they want their systems to be restored, the official said.

North Korea has denied being behind the Sony and banking attacks. North Korean officials were not immediately available for comment and its state media has been quiet about the matter.

Hauri researcher Choi said the code bore similarities with those allegedly used by North Korean hackers in the Sony and bank heists. He said based on his conversations with North Korean hackers, the reclusive state had been developing and testing ransomware programmes since August.

In one case, alleged hackers from North Korea demanded bitcoin in exchange for client information they had stolen from a South Korean shopping mall, Choi added.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on Monday.

While the attacks have raised concerns for cyber authorities and end-users worldwide, they have helped cybersecurity stocks as investors bet governments and corporations will spend more to upgrade their defenses.

Cisco Systems closed up 2.3 per cent on Monday and was the second-biggest gainer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 
 
(Reuters)

Researchers supported Symantec and Kaspersky Lab's findings of a similarity in WannaCry software code used earlier with one used in a North Korea-run hacking operation

Cybersecurity researchers have found evidence they say could link North Korea with the WannaCry cyber attack that has infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide, as global authorities scrambled to prevent hackers from spreading new versions of the virus. (Also Read: The anonymous whiz kid who foiled the global cyberattack) A researcher from South Korea's Hauri Labs said on Tuesday their own findings matched those of Symantec and Kaspersky Lab, who said on Monday that some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programmes used by the Lazarus Group, identified by some researchers as a North Korea-run hacking operation. "It is similar to North Korea's backdoor malicious codes," said Simon Choi, a senior researcher with Hauri who has done extensive research into North Korea's hacking capabilities and advises South Korean police and National Intelligence Service. Both Symantec and Kaspersky said it was too early to tell whether North Korea was involved in the attacks, based on the evidence that was published on Twitter by Google security researcher Neel Mehta. The attacks, which slowed on Monday, are among the fastest-spreading extortion campaigns on record. In China, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information to share, when asked about the origin of the attack and whether North Korea might be connected. Several Asian countries have been affected by the malware, although the impact has not been as widespread as some had feared. In Malaysia, cybersecurity firm LE Global Services said it identified 12 cases so far, including a large government-linked corporation, a government-linked investment firm and an insurance company. It did not name any of the entities. "We may not see the real picture yet, as companies are not mandated to disclose security breaches to authorities in Malaysia," said LE Global CEO Fong Choong Fook. "The real situation may be serious. In one of the cases, the attack was traced back to early April." Vietnam's state media said on Tuesday more than 200 computers had been affected. Taiwan Power Co. said that nearly 800 of its computers were affected, although these were used for administration, not for systems involved in electricity generation. Experts urge caution FireEye Inc, another large cyber security firm, said it was also investigating, but it was cautious about drawing a link to North Korea. "The similarities we see between malware linked to that group and WannaCry are not unique enough to be strongly suggestive of a common operator," FireEye researcher John Miller said. US and European security officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was too early to say who might be behind the attacks, but they did not rule out North Korea as a suspect. The Lazarus hackers, acting for impoverished North Korea, have been more brazen in their pursuit of financial gain than others, and have been blamed for the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank, according to some cyber security firms. The United States accused it of being behind a cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014. An official at South Korea's Korea Internet & Security Agency said on Tuesday the agency was sharing information with intelligence officials on recent cases reported for damages but was not in position to investigate the source of the attack. The official declined to comment on intelligence-related matters. A South Korean police official that handles investigations into hacking and cyber breaches said he was aware of reports on the North Korean link, but said police were not investigating yet. Victims haven't requested investigations but they want their systems to be restored, the official said. North Korea has denied being behind the Sony and banking attacks. North Korean officials were not immediately available for comment and its state media has been quiet about the matter. Hauri researcher Choi said the code bore similarities with those allegedly used by North Korean hackers in the Sony and bank heists. He said based on his conversations with North Korean hackers, the reclusive state had been developing and testing ransomware programmes since August. In one case, alleged hackers from North Korea demanded bitcoin in exchange for client information they had stolen from a South Korean shopping mall, Choi added. The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on Monday. While the attacks have raised concerns for cyber authorities and end-users worldwide, they have helped cybersecurity stocks as investors bet governments and corporations will spend more to upgrade their defenses. Cisco Systems closed up 2.3 per cent on Monday and was the second-biggest gainer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (Reuters)

Researchers see possible North Korea link to global cyber attack

With online accounts containing a plethora of personal, financial, confidential and other sensitive details, it becomes imperative to protect them from hackers and keep them secure. Many of you would agree to it, but are you doing anything to beef up your online security?

Now before you start to scratch your head wondering what all can be done to keep your online accounts safe, we suggest you to hang on. Because we have some help to offer.

We bring you 5 simple tips that can help you protect your online accounts against hacks, password thefts and other cyber attacks.

1. Don&rsquo;t use the same password for multiple accounts: A lot of people go on to keep the same password for their multiple accounts so that they don&rsquo;t forget them - or for that matter, just to save themselves from getting confused among multiple passwords. But we highly recommend you to not use the same password for your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Instagram and other online accounts. Because once that password gets compromised, it will expose all your online accounts to hacking and other cyber crimes. And you can think of all the damage that it can then cause to your digital life.

2. Create strong passwords: Accounts with weak passwords (like the ones with your name or birth date) are more prone to hacking. And therefore, it is advisable to have strong passwords for your online accounts. If you are wondering how to create strong passwords, here is a two-step guide. Firstly, always have a long password. And secondly, use a combination of letters, upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols like hash or the exclamation mark.

For instance, instead of simply choosing &ldquo;mysecurity12&rdquo;, keep something like this - MyS3cur!ty12.

If you compare the two, both passwords have the same number of letters, but you can see the difference in how the two have been framed. Indisputably, the one with the combination of letters, numbers and other characters is stronger than the other. And this reduces chances of your online accounts from getting hacked.

3. Opt for two-step verification: We don&rsquo;t intend to scare you, but let us warn you that it&rsquo;s easier than you think for someone to hack your password. But if you have enabled the two-step verification for your online accounts, you are in a much safer territory. Remember, that annoying page that sometimes pops up when you log in to your Gmail account and you just press skip and move on? Well, that&rsquo;s Google&rsquo;s way of reminding you to doubly secure your account. So remember this the next time you think of pressing that skip button.
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But how does this help? So if a bad guy has stolen your password, he would still need to cross that second layer of security to hack into your account. And for that he would need your phone.

So it goes like this. The two-step verification process not only requires your password, but it also asks the user to enter a unique code sent to the registered phone if he logs into your account from a new machine. So the hacker may have your password, but it is unlikely for him to have ready access to your phone.

4. Change your passwords regularly: It&rsquo;s a good practice to change your passwords at frequent intervals. Because you never know when your account details start to circulate among hackers. But by changing your passwords regularly, you can save yourself from prospective damages.

If you&#39;re too lazy to regularly change passwords for all of your accounts, at least do that for your major accounts that contain sensitive information&nbsp; like your personal emails, or for that matter, your social networks.

And to help you manage and remember new passwords every now and then, a wide range of password managers are available online. They not only save you from remembering so many passwords, but also do the job for you every time you log in to an account. 
 
5. Avoid linking accounts: Many of us often find it convenient to log in to a service using our existing Facebook or Google account, but we suggest you to drop this habit. Because by doing so, you link your different accounts. So it means if a hacker breaks into one of your accounts, he can easily access your other linked accounts. So avoid linking your accounts whenever and wherever possible. In fact, it&rsquo;s a good practice to always sign up for a new service. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

With online accounts containing a lot of personal, financial, and other sensitive details, it is imperative to protect them from hackers

With online accounts containing a plethora of personal, financial, confidential and other sensitive details, it becomes imperative to protect them from hackers and keep them secure. Many of you would agree to it, but are you doing anything to beef up your online security? Now before you start to scratch your head wondering what all can be done to keep your online accounts safe, we suggest you to hang on. Because we have some help to offer. We bring you 5 simple tips that can help you protect your online accounts against hacks, password thefts and other cyber attacks. 1. Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts: A lot of people go on to keep the same password for their multiple accounts so that they don’t forget them - or for that matter, just to save themselves from getting confused among multiple passwords. But we highly recommend you to not use the same password for your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Instagram and other online accounts. Because once that password gets compromised, it will expose all your online accounts to hacking and other cyber crimes. And you can think of all the damage that it can then cause to your digital life. 2. Create strong passwords: Accounts with weak passwords (like the ones with your name or birth date) are more prone to hacking. And therefore, it is advisable to have strong passwords for your online accounts. If you are wondering how to create strong passwords, here is a two-step guide. Firstly, always have a long password. And secondly, use a combination of letters, upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols like hash or the exclamation mark. For instance, instead of simply choosing “mysecurity12”, keep something like this - MyS3cur!ty12. If you compare the two, both passwords have the same number of letters, but you can see the difference in how the two have been framed. Indisputably, the one with the combination of letters, numbers and other characters is stronger than the other. And this reduces chances of your online accounts from getting hacked. 3. Opt for two-step verification: We don’t intend to scare you, but let us warn you that it’s easier than you think for someone to hack your password. But if you have enabled the two-step verification for your online accounts, you are in a much safer territory. Remember, that annoying page that sometimes pops up when you log in to your Gmail account and you just press skip and move on? Well, that’s Google’s way of reminding you to doubly secure your account. So remember this the next time you think of pressing that skip button. But how does this help? So if a bad guy has stolen your password, he would still need to cross that second layer of security to hack into your account. And for that he would need your phone. So it goes like this. The two-step verification process not only requires your password, but it also asks the user to enter a unique code sent to the registered phone if he logs into your account from a new machine. So the hacker may have your password, but it is unlikely for him to have ready access to your phone. 4. Change your passwords regularly: It’s a good practice to change your passwords at frequent intervals. Because you never know when your account details start to circulate among hackers. But by changing your passwords regularly, you can save yourself from prospective damages. If you're too lazy to regularly change passwords for all of your accounts, at least do that for your major accounts that contain sensitive information like your personal emails, or for that matter, your social networks. And to help you manage and remember new passwords every now and then, a wide range of password managers are available online. They not only save you from remembering so many passwords, but also do the job for you every time you log in to an account. 5. Avoid linking accounts: Many of us often find it convenient to log in to a service using our existing Facebook or Google account, but we suggest you to drop this habit. Because by doing so, you link your different accounts. So it means if a hacker breaks into one of your accounts, he can easily access your other linked accounts. So avoid linking your accounts whenever and wherever possible. In fact, it’s a good practice to always sign up for a new service.

5 simple tips to protect your Gmail, Facebook and other online accounts

Cyber attacks targeting a little-known internet infrastructure company, Dynamic Network Services Inc (Dyn), disrupted access to dozens of websites on Friday, rendering major companies including Twitter and Netflix inaccessible to millions of users in the United States and elsewhere.

Successive cyber attacks and service outages made it difficult to identify all the victims. But technology news site Gizmodo named some five dozen sites that were affected by the attack.&nbsp;

Dyn, which routes and manages internet traffic, said it did not know who was responsible for the outages that began in the eastern United States, and later spread to other parts of the country and overseas.&nbsp;

The company claimed to have resolved the matter within about two hours but was again responding to an attack, within no time. &quot;Our engineers are continuing to investigate and mitigate several attacks aimed at the Dyn managed DNS infrastructure,&quot; the company said on its website.

It also commanded the attention of top US security agencies including the department of homeland security. &quot;DHS and the FBI are aware and are investigating all potential causes&quot; of the outages, a spokeswoman said.

Affected websites included Reddit, the crafts marketplace Etsy and the software developer site Github, according to media reports. Others reportedly affected include CNN, The Guardian, Wired, HBO and People as well as the money transfer service PayPal.

The incident underscored the inter-dependencies of large portions of the internet and their vulnerabilities, with multiple users affected by an attack on a single company.&nbsp;

(WION with inputs agencies) 
&nbsp;

US security agencies, including homeland security and FBI, are probing 'all potential causes' of attack on internet provider Dyn

Cyber attacks targeting a little-known internet infrastructure company, Dynamic Network Services Inc (Dyn), disrupted access to dozens of websites on Friday, rendering major companies including Twitter and Netflix inaccessible to millions of users in the United States and elsewhere. Successive cyber attacks and service outages made it difficult to identify all the victims. But technology news site Gizmodo named some five dozen sites that were affected by the attack. Dyn, which routes and manages internet traffic, said it did not know who was responsible for the outages that began in the eastern United States, and later spread to other parts of the country and overseas. The company claimed to have resolved the matter within about two hours but was again responding to an attack, within no time. "Our engineers are continuing to investigate and mitigate several attacks aimed at the Dyn managed DNS infrastructure," the company said on its website. It also commanded the attention of top US security agencies including the department of homeland security. "DHS and the FBI are aware and are investigating all potential causes" of the outages, a spokeswoman said. Affected websites included Reddit, the crafts marketplace Etsy and the software developer site Github, according to media reports. Others reportedly affected include CNN, The Guardian, Wired, HBO and People as well as the money transfer service PayPal. The incident underscored the inter-dependencies of large portions of the internet and their vulnerabilities, with multiple users affected by an attack on a single company. (WION with inputs agencies)

Twitter, Amazon, other top websites temporarily shut after US cyber attacks

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