It seems that my prophecies of a digital apocalypse is coming true each passing day. Every few months incidents are happening around the globe that is not only bringing down the trans connected networks and systems but also endangering the lives of people connected to these systems as lately seen in ransom ware attack on UK National Health Services.
This week the world saw another ransom-ware virus named 'Petya' that created havoc across 65 countries and asked users to pay crypto money to free their data. The known source for Petya was a massive infection in government mandated tax preparation software in Ukraine and not so surprisingly the attack happened on the eve of a Ukrainian national holiday pointing all fingers in the Russian direction as the likely originator.
Like WannaCry, Petya acts via "EternalBlue," a Microsoft vulnerability that was exploited for years by the National Security Agency before being stolen and then revealed by the Shadow Brokers hacking group in April this year. Russia may have launched the attack, but the underlying technology was made in America, by the NSA. Security experts now see this wave of attacks as a sign that “the agency’s own weaponry could be used to destroy critical infrastructure in allied nations or in the United States”.
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