Is it only Windows that affected by Ransomeware?

[jenevers]

Is Apple not affected ............ yet?

[rusty69]

OR Linux/Android. 

[Chewbacka]

In this outbreak - yes.  windows has/had an error which allowed the computer to be compromised without the user doing anything.  Microsoft issued a fix to prevent this back in March, but if you did not update your computer then you would be vulnerable.  If you are running windows XP then microsoft no longer issues a fix for XP so then you would be reliant on your firewall software that may or may not be able to catch it.  

I am sure there are weaknesses in apple and linux products as well, but as most computers use windows, that is the system hackers go for - a bigger 'customer' base for their recovery service.

Added  --  There have been a couple of posts recently where people have advised turning off automatic updates to save data, however this does show the risks one can be taking................

As an aside, I would assume the person launching this hack is feeling somewhat nervous as no doubt GCHQ as well as the Americans and the Russians who have all been affected are now searching for them.  Maybe not the British, but it would not surprise me if some of the other countries are not so bothered about human rights when asking for the de-encryption keys when they find them.......

Edited May 13, 2017 by Chewbacka

[WotEver]

If you're referring to the one that hit over the last couple of days then yes, it's only built to attack unprotected MS systems which haven't installed all the security updates and/or don't have any decent AV software. 

If you're asking generically then no, ransomeware has been written that is able to attack most OS. 

[jenevers]

24 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

In this outbreak - yes.  windows has/had an error which allowed the computer to be compromised without the user doing anything.  Microsoft issued a fix to prevent this back in March, but if you did not update your computer then you would be vulnerable.  If you are running windows XP then microsoft no longer issues a fix for XP so then you would be reliant on your firewall software that may or may not be able to catch it.  

I am sure there are weaknesses in apple and linux products as well, but as most computers use windows, that is the system hackers go for - a bigger 'customer' base for their recovery service.

Added  --  There have been a couple of posts recently where people have advised turning off automatic updates to save data, however this does show the risks one can be taking................

As an aside, I would assume the person launching this hack is feeling somewhat nervous as no doubt GCHQ as well as the Americans and the Russians who have all been affected are now searching for them.  Maybe not the British, but it would not surprise me if some of the other countries are not so bothered about human rights when asking for the de-encryption keys when they find them.......

How is it that Microsoft can get away with not issuing fixes for windows XP?

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, jenevers said:

How is it that Microsoft can get away with not issuing fixes for windows XP?

They did. They were called win vista, win 7 and win 10.

 

When they stopped issuing updates for XP I switched my netbook over to Lubuntu and Android. 

Edited May 13, 2017 by rusty69

[rupertbear]

I would like to make it clear that neither Swallows nor Amazons had anything to do with this or any other ransomware.

[jenevers]

4 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

They did. They were called win vista, win 7 and win 10.

 

When they stopped issuing updates for XP I switched my netbook over to Lubuntu and Android. 

Yeah but my old laptop is Vista. Issuing  win 7 win 10 etc doesn't solve my problem..........Oh wait a minute .... I could just buy another laptop! Simple.

[rusty69]

6 minutes ago, jenevers said:

Yeah but my old laptop is Vista. Issuing  win 7 win 10 etc doesn't solve my problem..........Oh wait a minute .... I could just buy another laptop! Simple.

Or install a more modern OS which offers free updates. 

WinXP was released in 2001,so in computing terms its a T Rex. 

Edited May 13, 2017 by rusty69

[mross]

Smug Apple users beware! https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/apple-users-beware-first-live-ransomware-targeting-mac-found-in-the-wild/

[jenevers]

39 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Or install a more modern OS which offers free updates. 

WinXP was released in 2001,so in computing terms its a T Rex. 

 

39 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Or install a more modern OS which offers free updates. 

WinXP was released in 2001,so in computing terms its a T Rex. 

What's an OS please?

[MtB]

Operating system. Eg windows 7

[jenevers]

13 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Operating system. Eg windows 7

So can I install that into my Windows Vista laptop?

[WotEver]

3 minutes ago, jenevers said:

So can I install that into my Windows Vista laptop?

No, it's also out of date. The current Microsoft OS is Windows 10 but your laptop will be too old to run it unfortunately. 

It's the modern way; if it's 5 years old throw it away and buy a new one

[rusty69]

23 minutes ago, jenevers said:

So can I install that into my Windows Vista laptop?

The extent to which you can update the operating system (OS) will be dependant on your laptop age and spec. If its an older laptop, installing say win 10 on it may cause it to run slower,if at all. 

 

A Good upgrade for XP is often one of the Linux offerings if you have a bit of computing knowledge, but check first, im not sure how much longer updates  will be supported on some distributions

 

Maybe worth a read

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2017/mar/16/upgrade-microsoft-windows-vista-options-unsupported

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by rusty69

[bizzard]

I think you can buy W7 to install on a Vista laptop. I'm Vista and am thinking of doing it.

[rusty69]

6 minutes ago, WotEver said:

No, it's also out of date. The current Microsoft OS is Windows 10 but your laptop will be too old to run it unfortunately. 

It's the modern way; if it's 5 years old throw it away and buy a new one

My trusty old netbook is 9 years old and still regularly used to access the www.But it does seem to be a chuck it and buy another culture we live in. 

[Robbo]

1 hour ago, jenevers said:

Is Apple not affected ............ yet?

Apple has had ransomware, however it's less affected due to...

The install base is much less.

Much more of the install base is on a later version of the OS.

Default security setting for installs has to be from the app store or signed, so unknown programs can't just run.

Inbuilt malware protection - gets updated from Apple on the latest threats.

 

Linux desktop isn't affected as no bugger uses it.  Android and linux servers will and are targeted.

Edited May 13, 2017 by Robbo

[nicknorman]

22 minutes ago, WotEver said:

No, it's also out of date. The current Microsoft OS is Windows 10 but your laptop will be too old to run it unfortunately. 

It's the modern way; if it's 5 years old throw it away and buy a new one

Well not necessarily, depends on the amount of memory and the specific hardware. My old work laptop which is now 8 years old, is quite happy running Win 10. When it went from XP to Win7 it was faster, though no doubt that was due to a clean install.

[Grebe]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

Or install a more modern OS which offers free updates. 

WinXP was released in 2001,so in computing terms its a T Rex. 

We replaced our 10 years old laptops, running Vista, last December time.

The old machines were still good to use so we offered them to a charity that distributes old computers to 'developing ' African countries.  We started to enter detils and the donation failed the second question 'How old is the device?' answer 10 years, result = donation rejected, we only accept items under 5 years old...so they now in recycling mountain

[matty40s]

Portholes are safer

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Grebe said:

We replaced our 10 years old laptops, running Vista, last December time.

The old machines were still good to use so we offered them to a charity that distributes old computers to 'developing ' African countries.  We started to enter detils and the donation failed the second question 'How old is the device?' answer 10 years, result = donation rejected, we only accept items under 5 years old...so they now in recycling mountain

I doubt they get many donations then. 

 

I don't know how long a typical hard drive lasts, but suspect 10 years is pretty good. 

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Well not necessarily, depends on the amount of memory and the specific hardware. My old work laptop which is now 8 years old, is quite happy running Win 10. When it went from XP to Win7 it was faster, though no doubt that was due to a clean install.

I'd be pretty confident that the hardware on a laptop that was originally supplied with Vista won't be anywhere near compatible with Win10.

I have a 5 year old lappy that came with Win8 and upgrading to Win10 has effectively broken it due to an incompatible graphics driver (even though Intel said it would work). 

Googling for 'Acer Iconia W510 UI text missing Win10' will show that I'm far from alone. 

[mross]

It's worth using the Microsoft tool to check if your hardware is compatible with Windows 10.  but this is for people who have Win7 or 8.

[jddevel]

As so many countries have been effected perhaps when and if the source is traced they should be put on trial where the human rights leaves a lot to be desired!