Have you been hacked? Or it would be better to ask that who hasn’t been hacked. Well, 2017 is going to end in another few days and it seems like it might end up going down in the history books as the year of ‘Hackers’. Therefore, let’s recap the biggest cyber security threats reported in 2017 and what they teach us about the online security. Here we go!

Charger Ransomware

On January 2017, Google Play Store was attacked by the malicious Ransomware called ‘Charger’ which travelled through one of the apps known as Energy Rescue.

The message displayed on a computer screen – “You need to pay for us. Otherwise, we will sell a portion of your personal information on black market every 30 minutes. We give a 100 % guarantee that all files will restore after we receive payment. We will unlock the mobile device and delete all your data from our server! Turning off your phone is meaningless, all your data is already stored on our servers! We still can sell it for spam, fake, bank crime, etc. we collect and download all of your personal data. All information about your social networks, bank accounts, credit cards. We collect all data about your friends and family.” Read more.

WannaCry Ransomware

Suddenly, 12th May 2017, Friday became a nightmare for National Health Service of Britain, including many public and private organizations in Russia and China.

A message displayed on the computer screen ‘Oops Your Files Have been encrypted”. This message accompanied the entire process to decrypt the files, but not without the payment of $300 in bitcoins. After it hit the National Health Service in Britain, doctors found many important patient files locked down. Starting with a few countries, soon it spread to 150 nations with some being worst affected. Read more.

Petya Ransomware

On 27th of June, 2017, another dangerous ransomware known by the name of GoldenEye or Petya was executed. It was believed that the ransomware affected 2,000 systems in US, Middle East, and Europe as of now.

This malware targeted Microsoft Windows-based systems taking advantage of the Eternal Blue vulnerability, which was previously used by WannaCry. Infecting the master boot record, it locks the hard drive and all the individual files on the target computer system, causing it to stop working and demands a payment in Bitcoin in order to regain access to the system. Read more

Locky Ransomware

After WannaCry and Petya, cyber crooks executed an email-based ‘Locky ransomware’. On 23rd of September, 2017, the Locky Ransomware reported having been sent to about a half-million users.

Delivered as a Microsoft Word attachment through email, this ransomware asks the user to enable macros in order to view the document. However, when the user does so, the encryption trojan gets downloaded on the system and encrypts all files with some particular extensions. Read more

Bad Rabbit Ransomware

On 24th of October, a new ransomware known as Bad Rabbit, hit three Russian media outlets, including the news agency Interfax, according to Russian security firm Group-IB.

Once it infects a computer, Bad Rabbit displays a message in red letters on a black background, an aesthetic used in the massive Notypetya ransomware outbreak. Read more.

Security Takeaways

First and foremost, keep your operating systems updated with the latest software version running on it.

Think twice before clicking any suspicious links or attachments sent by an unknown.

Personalize your anti-spam settings.

Backup your most important data on a regular basis.

Secure your network by running the best antivirus protection on your device.

Stop neglecting. Because we care, we are security aware!