They’re calling it one of the biggest cyber attacks in history. Unprecedented in scale, Kaspersky Labs reports that some 45,000 devices have been compromised across 74 countries.
According to reports, America’s own National Security Agency (NSA) developed the very tools that have been used to break into computers around the world. The exploit, named “EternalBlue,” was released by a hacking group earlier this year and put up for sale.
It appears that someone took them up on the offer and is now using it to deliver Ransom Ware to target computers:
A hacking tool known as “eternal blue”, developed by US spies has been weaponised by the hackers to super-charge an existing form of ransomware known as WannaCry, three senior cyber security analysts said. Their reading of events was confirmed by western security officials who are still scrambling to contain the spread of the attack. The NSA’s eternal blue exploit allows the malware to spread through file-sharing protocols set up across organisations, many of which span the globe.
NHS hack: So NSA had secret backdoor into Windows. Details leaked few weeks ago. Now backdoor being exploited by random criminals. Nightmare
— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) May 12, 2017
Ransom Ware is designed to stealthily compromise a target system, and once deployed, immediately locks down files by encrypting so that only someone with the key is able to unlock them. In most cases, the virus requests that the user send a certain amount of money, often using untraceable digital currencies like Bitcoin to cover their tracks. Failure to pay within the allotted time will render the files on the target system unusable.
The latest hack shows just how vulnerable our systems are. And we’re not just talking about personal computers. Today’s attack targeted the health care system of Britain. Similar reports have emerged from Spain and other countries.
For the time being, systems related to utilities, law enforcement, power grids, and the energy sector have not been hijacked, but as we’ve previously warned these are exactly the networks that rogue terror groups and other organizations could compromise at any moment:
It now appears that our interconnected smart grid is actively under attack, as evidenced by a new Stuxnet-style trojan that has been detected by major cyber security leaders Symantec and McAfee. Much like its predecessor, the trojan dubbed “Duqu” is designed to infilitrate the networks that control everything from power production facilities to oil refineries. It is not yet clear exactly how the trojan operates, what its intended purpose is, or who designed it (though it is believed that the code for Duqu and Stuxnet likely originated with U.S. intelligence agencies). Both Symantec and McAfee continue to investigate the threat:
Security researchers have detected a new Trojan, scarily similar to the infamous Stuxnet worm, which could disrupt computers controlling power plants, oil refineries and other critical infrastructure networks.
Trojans and viruses capable of taking down the very infrastructure upon which we depend in day-to-day life are getting more and more advanced.
Now, those viruses combined with NSA Zero Day tools capable of breaking through digital security protocols could deliver a blow to America’s cyber networks unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Th combination can be extremely disruptive, perhaps even deadly.
Today’s cyber attack is a warning.
The next one could quite literally take down our entire power grid, at which point everything from the banking system to your local gas station will become inoperable.
Within about 48 hours of that scenario, should officials not be able to restore electrical grid services, you can expect a full breakdown of civil society as you know it today:
After the initial shock wears off of the disaster, many will have difficulty in coping and adapting to what has just occurred. This is also what many refer to as the normalcy bias, and is actually a coping mechanism to help us process and deal with the changes that have occurred. Many will cling to any normal thought and habit until their brain begins to accept the changes it has witnessed. As they are trying to wrap their thoughts around the severity of the disaster, their losses and what their future holds, local government leaders are scrambling for answers and trying to assess the situation, all the while dealing with their own normalcy bias issues.
At this point, the unprepared survivors will be expecting organizations and local government to step in to meet their immediate needs at any moment. The reality of the situation becomes more bleak when they realize that due to downed power lines or debris blocking roadways and access points, emergency organizations, emergency response and distribution trucks supplying food, water, fuel and other pertinent resources will be unable to get to the area. Once the realization hits that resources are scarce and the government leaders are incapable of helping them in a timely fashion, desperate citizens will take action into their own hands.
The breakdown has begun.
Source: The Anatomy of a Breakdown
We realize that sounds dramatic and sensationalist, but don’t take it from us. The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security said just last year that U.S. cyber networks have already been compromised to such an extent that at any moment our stock exchanges, electrical utilities and other core nodes of the United States could be taken down for the count.
Further, former Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano has not only warned of the imminence of a massive cyber attack, she also noted that it could take the government weeks to get it back online.
The outgoing Homeland Security Secretary has a warning for her successor: A massive and “serious” cyber attack on the U.S. homeland is coming, and a natural disaster — the likes of which the nation has never seen — is also likely on its way.
In the meantime, there will be no food on grocery store shelves and the modern conveniences you enjoy today – things like refrigeration, air conditioning and television – will be non-existent, which is why preparing ahead of a major disaster is absolutely critical to survival.
Today hackers took down government healthcare systems and other important infrastructure components across 74 countries.
Tomorrow it could be the U.S. power grid.
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And what are our feckless leaders in D.C. doing about this?
Ah….yes…..nothing.
Lots of talk. No action.
Someone….please….tell me exactly….WHY do we need these people?
And they want us to trust a cashless banking system. I trust machines not. Nor people.
A great as Bitcoin is, won’t be worth very much if the grid or network infrastructure is down. PMs are a better idea. Of course, the downside for PMS is that you can manipulate AU/AG as they are doing now, whereas you can’t with Bitcoin.
Gold and silver are only manipulated in their relationship to FRNs.
As I’ve said before, a silver dime in 1960 could buy a loaf of bread. A silver dime today can buy a loaf of bread. An ounce of gold 100 years ago could buy a really good suit. Today it will still buy a really good suit.
Have you tried taking that silver dime into a supermarket to buy a loaf of bread?
Have you taken that 1oz cold coin into a clothing store to buy a good suit?
Try it. I’ll bet you’ll never find a store that will take your silver/gold in fair trade. Stop fantasizing about PMs being “money”. Money buys PMs. PMs can be traded back for money. But PMs are not money in today’s society.
All you’ve done is explain the details behind how what Archivist said is 100% true: That a 1960 dime and a loaf of bread are still of equal value today.
yes, to enslave the sheeple (or hold society for ransom)
Update…
“There have been reports of infections in 99 countries, including the UK, US, China, Russia, Spain, Italy and Taiwan.
Cyber-security firm Avast said it had seen 75,000 cases of the ransomware – known as WannaCry and variants of that name – around the world.”
ht tp://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39901382
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39901382
I think with the world of trouble we are in financially taking down the banking system via “hacking” would be an amazing false flag for the Fed to skirt blame.
Perhaps it is some another kind of trial run. There have already been web-down periods over large areas. Remember, there are people who desperately want to take the web down, so you cannot exchange information with others.
It is not beyond them to spread these kinds of computer threats. Just like any kind of massive crime, there are lots of people who will call for more controls. Shut the web down , and all it’s attendant services for a week or so, lots of people will scream for a “solution”.
“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”—David Rockefeller
Never for get that quote, remember it any time some kind of crisis is happening.
Ain’t I been saying it?
Yes you have, Goober. Its annoying.
We have to do cyber better! It is a Yuuuuge problem 🙂
What did hitlery hack into this time?
Yea, don’t blame the people who made this possible like CIA, no let’s blame the people who complained about it yea like Snowden.
Have to do better?!Hmmmm…..,spy on our citizens/try and prosecute Assange,yep,that will make things better!
I’ve been thinking a lot about food shortages…
The Bible talks of the Apocalypse and the 4 horsemen… The first is a white horse– a new king is crowned. Behind him comes a horse the color of fire, bearing a rider who takes peace away from all the Earth. There follows a third horse, black as midnight, carrying a rider who holds aloft a pair of scales as a doleful message is proclaimed about a lack of basic foodstuffs. The fourth horse is a sickly pale color, a harbinger of disease and other lethal threats, ridden by death itself….
All that is durn grim unless Jesus is in the heart! The Lord really told us to be preppers with the story of the bridesmaids and the lamps. The ones that didn’t put back were nowhere but in pain.
Spot on, Menzo. Thanks
Joseph in the Old Testament is another good one.
I’d like to know how he kept the weevils out of the grain for 14 yrs.
A Proverbs 31 woman is also a good study in prepping. She had it going on.
I’ve read Proverbs 31 several times this week. Also gotta love Joseph’s insight… He was hated and an outsider but eventually rose to an influential position. Preppers, don’t lose heart if you feel all alone in a proverbial ditch like Joseph… Fools abound but the wise keep on.
And Napolitano did so much to help with this problem..worthless POS.
Glad all I have to deal with is a slower computer now that google and microsoft stopped supporting Vista..
If it all goes down, it’s been a pleasure venting with you all.
I’d say it has been an honor also, but I’d probably get arrested for it.
Switch to Linux or go back to DOS, and your computer will speed back up.
Years ago, while I was redoing a program for Y2K, I needed a way to convert a lot of data files from old formats to something that new software would read. Each table was in the 30MB or larger range. The plan was for the users to use the old software for the last time on a Friday, I was going to convert all the data over the weekend, and the users were going to use the new software with the converted data without missing a beat.
The problem was that Windows was too slow. The network was too slow as well. My solution was to copy the data tables Friday night to an old computer through the network. As soon as I finished the copying, I rebooted the computer into DOS without the network. I used DOS software, including macros in WordPerfect (DOS version), to do the conversions on Saturday. Even in DOS, it took all day. But everything worked out fine.
So, you can get new DOS software to do almost anything you want, including cruise the internet, and do it quickly and with little to no virus risk. There are people in Europe who can’t afford new computers and are writing DOS software. Columbia University still supports WordPerfect for DOS and even writes new printer drivers occasionally.
Hope is not lost. My wife still has XP on her machine.
Watch out Archivist or Hammer’s Thor will chime in about the virtues of linux.
Oh wait, I AM Hammer’s Thor!
I am using a 12 year old Panasonic Toughbook, Core Duo 1.8 with Linux Mint 18.1 and a Crucial SSD. Flawless. Never chokes, never crashes, fast as any new computer (even with the HD Encrypted) and there is nothing that I have ever needed (and I need a lot in my work) that “requires” windows that I cannot get to work better, and for free, on Linux.
Anyone still reading by this point, please, please give it a try. You can burn a DVD with it using windows, then try it our without messing up your windows installation. If you like it, and you will, buy an inexpensive SSD, install Linux and NEVER EVER look back.
I also haven’t been up half the night rebuilding a windows installation since I switched to Linux either.
If anyone is interested, I’ll post a quick list of the security measures I have taken to make my systems as secure as possible, understanding that no system is perfect, but even a good system like Linux can be made very nearly bulletproof…
Grid down would bring about the Apocalypse… perhaps North Korea doing it. There are 17 vegetables you can grow in your home from table scraps… they grow in a couple weeks. Look it up.
Acorns can be boiled over and over (throw out the water) to get rid of the bitter taste and then used to make bread from the remaining acorn…. Indians did that.
Chickens will be like gold. Great and easy, constant source of protein.. who doesn’t like eggs?
Hickory and walnuts (plentiful in the south) can be stored for the winter and provide protein… We could learn to live without the food in stores.
The millennials would go apeshit if the grid went down. How could they function?
Have you tried cracking black walnuts? I believe it takes more energy to get the meat out than the meat contains.
I want to get rid of our black walnut trees, but my wife doesn’t want me to.
Arch,mature black walnut a prized wood to work with for fine furniture/gunstocks ect.You have large black walnut could get em removed for free and some bucks for the wood,for cripes sake do not cut em up for firewood.i saw that happen once and almost cried when I saw the wood cut into 16′ stove logs!
If I was President, or King, I would have ditched computers twenty years ago. They are fine for entertainment, but business should be carried on the old fashioned way. The obvious vulnerability built into business relying on computers has been obvious since the beginning. I believe it is because of this vulnerability that Communist-Globalists put computers in place. They need an international catastrophy to cement control over the masses worldwide. Businesses should print out all their contact lists and prepare to go back to the slower but safer ways before computers entered into our lives.
__
No need to be a Luddite. Computers are just one more thing that people could not foresee being useful, yet dangerous. An incredible tool in one hand, a weapon in another. Nothing foresight and a realistic sense of awareness won’t fix.
On hickory and walnuts… how is it best to store them? Does anyone know? Is it better to store them in their green husks or not?
Also, pumpkin and sunflower seeds– I know you clean them, dry them and then store in brown paper bag or envelope. When you want to eat them months later, do you then put them in the oven (low heat)? Or do you dry them in the oven BEFORE you store them?
Anonymous:
Nuts and seeds will go bad within a few months, but if you remove the outer husk, dry, and vacuum seal, then refrigerate, they stay fresh much longer.
__
I’ve had peanuts to last for years, in their shells, if stored in cool, dry place.
I’ve kept walnuts in their shells for a couple of years and they were fine. You can dry can shelled nuts and seeds and they will keep indefinitely.
Walnuts get worms if left in the husks.
I’m a software engineer.
I went to school with future
Microsoft millionaires.
I stupidly stayed at Boeing.
I only use Windows for my wife’s
games and VISIO.
All my machines are Linux based.
They are twitchy, but I can can deal
with it, most people don’t want to.
Crashing Linux can be done, but
I can build a clean new 64 bit OS and replace
all data in a few hours, from a thumb
drive.
You cannot hack my machines.
I can be snooped because I’m on a
Satellite Internet link, but the server
changes by the minute. The IP is DHCP
so good luck tracking that one.
Most people think I’m in Louisiana,
or Georgia, or Nebraska, or Mississippi,
or Tennessee, et al.
My point to preparers is
if you have computers take care
what you do and Microsoft is
not your friend. Ubuntu and
Fedora are.
NSA exploit covers all OS vendors/versions.
Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, MAC, iOS, Android, etc..
Windows is just a target that yields better results due to the circulation.
Rellik,am a mint guy but agree that you can take precautions like Linux to help avoid attacks/spying ect.I would also say,you have any info of real value,back up on a thumb drive and if real important,also,print it up!Any thing you want to keep to yourself,DO NOT go on the net with it on sites like this/e-mail/anything!
If something goes wrong with my computer/tablet/phone——
Ill toss em in the closet and life goes on.
Beyond the ability to do shop drawings etc in AutoCAD i dont really need any of them
Hey Relik,
What have you found to be twitchy with Linux? I’m using Mint 18.1, and was using 17.x until I upgraded. Only issue I ever had was with video drivers trying to set up a triple monitor system, but Nvidia finally got that fixed. Was messing around with my production machine (never mess around with your production machine) and found a bug trying to FTP pages to my website after I installed the newest 4.11 kernel (stupid), so backed it back down to the recommended security kernel (4.4.0-77) and back to normal. I have Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a separate drive I plug in for astronomy projects, and that is sometimes finicky, but even it doesn’t ever let me down.
Just curious…
Sorry to be late on this, but I find problems no one else does so the Internet is generally useless for help. I’m tempted to do my own builds like I used to.
Ubuntu 16.04 seems to be well behaved. I have both 32 and 64 bit versions I think the 64 is faster comparing two identical machines.
I also cling to a 14.04 that just barely works. Unlike most our fellow SFTFer’s I have a few computers and they are a hobby for me.
I only have like 5 computers, a Site wide 2 km 5 gHz wi-fi system, and some other goodies.
I had to repair my wifes Win 10 Internet this morning, we lost Satellite last night for several hours and her Internet died. My Linux stuff recovered just fine. I hate Windows.
Any Microsoft product after Windows 7 sucks bigtime. Never update your windows software. Windows 10 is the devil.
I dearly hope at least a few people will read this.
I had dinner with a long time friend from Europe a couple weeks ago. He is a Ph.D in computer science, and works in Europe with cyber defense issues. He was over in the US working on this same issue a month or so ago, then came by for dinner with his wife.
I asked him directly about the threat to infrastructure. Of course, he couldn’t go into details, but he did say, that everything was infiltrated. However, the reason nothing has happened is that all this stuff was primarily by the ransomware crooks, who only have interest getting $$, not taking down the grid or destroying infrastructure, as then they the couldn’t enjoy their ill gotten gains, and would also turn limited gov’t resources their way.
Here’s the question tho: What if one of these guys sells this code to NK, Iran, of just some James Bond villain, then retires to his own private island in the South Pacific that is all set up to whether the equivalent of a EMP or CME (which, of course, is also a threat!). What if you have some Malthusian that thinks he is doing the world a favour by killing a billion people with his attack??? No answer from my friend on that – of course, there IS no possible answer.
So, mes amis, this is why preparedness isn’t a bad thing. A lot of us remain because we have to work, have elderly parents we have to take care of, and in an emergency, would want to help others – as much as we can – rather than just save our own skin alone (yes, first of all one does need to protect oneself, granted, but a world that is only”me-first” is no world to live in… might as well live in a world only populated by banksters, who live by the same amoral code).
So… my point is, this kind of stuff argues for some level of readiness. Besides, as Thoreau wrote about, “Self-reliance” is an intrinsic good… at least it used to be until the nanny state corrupted the moral fibre of the West.
Very true, Test
Sorry, meant “weather” above. I can’t proof read worth a darn
Test,
The CIA should have been watching the US’s back and not selling out our IT systems, so they could be second rate spy’s.
This is just like the drug war, where the CIA exploits foreign politicians bought by the drug lords. Of course the CIA protects drugs smuggling to protect their compromised assets within foreign governments, our children dying from crack and heroin are just collateral damage.
Instead of America having the strongest most secure computer operating systems, we have Swiss Cheese, go ahead rob us blind systems. The entire banking system of the US could go down tomorrow with the right hack and the CIA definitely had the banking system hacked.
I wonder how many back doors the CIA paid to have installed in Windows etc.
“My point to preparers is
if you have computers take care
what you do and Microsoft is
not your friend.”
So are computers made by Apple–
If you have Windows 7, 8 or 10, you can choose to not install any Windows updates. I still own Windows 7 and have not had a Windows update in over 5 years now and my pc is still running great, but still need to remember to have an antivirus program on your pc!
If you have latest Windows 10 software, there is a trick you can do to have the pc to not install the latest Windows updates, you can set the WiFi to throttle which limits the download and will not download any software updates. You can see the http://www.howtogeek.com website to know how to turn off Windows 7, 8 and 10 updates.
Apple computers are safe, I mean…cannot be hacked.
Yes they can.
HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHHAAHAH . . .
Apple is UNIX based. If you can get root
privileges, anything can be hacked.
BIOS access is even better.
Best is machine language, which
is nearly the lowest level( micro code is lowest)
you can go, in which case you can do anything!
Windows root is easy.
Apple or Linux not so much,
but if you are root you can also find and
fix the crap some hacker installs.
ps- aux is your start.
I love how it says that the program that did this was stolen from the NSA. Stolen my ass. The ptb will use a similar attack on our power grid in the largest false flag event in history. Unlike an EMP, this would be reversible and wouldn’t damage all the electronics they surveil us with.
hmmm, just maybe we ought to UNPLUG our power supply from the internet?
I still own a slide rule. Many do not even know what that is. And when us old timers are gone even fewer will know how to use one. Although when digital fails women will be able to count to twenty but only if they take their socks off. Men will be able to count twenty one but they will have to strip from the waist down. The people with slide rules will be the fully dressed ones laughing, pointing and rebuilding. And they will insist upon hard currency for their pay, no bitcoin or SDR accepted. Future to the back to the future. It takes a slide rule to figure that one out.
I have all of the family slide rules and know how to use them….still have my versalog handbook!
No verizon in N. Va. It’s been out since 1 am Friday and verizon is now saying (don’t believe them) 8:45 am Saturday.
I have three slide rules, one of them a pocket-size. I also have a book to cover the things I don’t remember. An engineering book with tables will be useful as well. I have a number of those.
Yeah me too.
Full up your has tanks and have water in case this thing gets worse as it still seems to be crashing.
Called my bro in Tx to make sure he has everything he needs online in case his goes down….He currently has access while mine in N. Va. Is not available.
I thought my bubble brain kids would be having bossy fits but our cells are on ATT and still working….Hence my posts here now. We always keep 2 providers for this reason…yes it is more expensive but we retain access….usually.
Kid found the dvds….
Lol. And life goes on.
I used to be able to read my pocket size slip stick, its a little blurry now, one about a yard long would be better. Good tip on the books. People must know how to add and subtract to use a slide rule fully. One caution for common core educated people. The slide rule takes that as a given.
Verizon is now up.
As to slide rules, these common core educated kids will not be able to place the decimal…hardest thing in using a slide rule….
GPA,
I have a slide rule
and can barely still
use it.
It is a Log log.
Hard to believe we went
to the moon, using these.
Realistically we really
did use IBM 360 to do the hard
stuff.
I remember my first computers memory upgrade, 40 megabytes. Wow, throw that Timex Sinclair in the garbage. I should have saved it. Turns out it was good at multiplication after all.
My pop is still around yeah! He still has his slide rule and for the same purpose. He was so excited when he gave me one of the first calculators available for public sale.
Bill Gates is Globalist scum of the earth. I have often pondered why he chose the terms WINDOWS and OUTLOOK. The systems were designed to be spied on, duh. I believe he was approached by gov to create computers for common use that can be spied on by spooks. In return he gets access to the Billionaire club so he can fund global vaccination programs for the drug company experimentation in the 3rd world.
Nobody blaming Gates though are they???
America went to the moon, using slide rules, no calculators, no cell phones, no internet, no personal computers.
I have my dad’s old slide rule. We had it framed.
I wonder if the group that committed the Holomodor,who solsenitzen told us must be in control of our media , and government, to have covered it up so long. Sence that people are starting to catch on in a big way. Last time they were willing to create the greatest slaughter in modern history to gain power. So what do you think they will do to keep it?
Sorry for typos… These cell phones are too tiny for old eyes…sorry…
I had ransomware try to extort me out of $200 or $250. Wrong person to do that to! I’ll erase my harddrive and reload my OS before I give them a dime!
Agreed. They’ll never get a penny our of me.
Keep your data backed up and detached from your main system. I use an external hard drive and run my backup software from a DVD about once a week (with the box unplugged from the router), then pack the drive back in it’s box and wrap it in foil.
Taking down the grid is one thing, damaging it another. The protective interlocks are all hard wired and unreachable from an outside source.
Has there ever been an unbreakable code?
I think the Navajo were close.
Just what I would expect from the Nogood Spying on Americans Agency. You can bet when it happens they are going to be ready for it, after all, they caused it. When riots are in the streets they are going to be eating cake in their basement not giving a shit.
Good to have any backups that are non electric for anything. Grid goes down its best we are somewhat prepared. Try living without the smartphone and computer for a week. Can you do it? Most of the country will go nuts. You can’t be messed with if they can’t cut you off.
I have a hundred or so books.
I’ll start off with Moby Dick( AKA The Whale)
NSA tools doing exactly what they were designed to do, by criminals but I repeat myself. I’d also bet that the attackers are also using the NSA tools to mask their identity and spoof another to blame as well.. but again I repeat myself. Who stands to gain to criminalize Bitcoin….the central bankers do. Who works for the bankers? The NSA and CIA…not hard to figure out who is doing this. Cui Bono? Who benefits…? That’s who the real attackers are.
May 11 2017 NYU ACCIDENTALLY EXPOSED MILITARY CODE-BREAKING COMPUTER PROJECT TO ENTIRE INTERNET
The supercomputer described in the trove, “WindsorGreen,” was a system designed to excel at the sort of complex mathematics that underlies encryption, the technology that keeps data private, and almost certainly intended for use by the Defense Department’s signals intelligence wing, the National Security Agency.
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/11/nyu-accidentally-exposed-military-code-breaking-computer-project-to-entire-internet/