[Updated] Ransomware Attack Can Affect POS Terminals

Some more information has come to hand on the latest from WannaCry (aka WannaCrypt). We recommend all our customers to have a read of this article.

To sum up:

1. If you use Windows, install the patch that Microsoft has released to block the specific exploit that the WannaCry ransomware is using. You can find instructions on this page in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. You can also directly download the patches for your OS from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
2. If you are using an unsupported version of Windows like Windows XP, Windows 2008 or Server 2003, you can get the patches for your unsupported OS from the Update Catalog. We do recommend that you update to a supported version of Windows as soon as possible.
3. Update your Antivirus software definitions. Most AV vendors have now added detection capability to block WannaCry.
4. If you don’t have anti-virus software enabled on your Windows machine, we recommend you enable Windows Defender which is free.
5. Backup regularly and make sure you have offline backups. That way, if you are infected with ransomware, it can’t encrypt your backups.
6. For further reading, Microsoft has released customer guidance for the WannaCry attacks and Troy Hunt has done an excellent detailed writeup on the WannaCry ransomware.

[Earlier]

A vulnerability in Microsoft operation systems is actively being exploited by ransomware WannaCry. If you haven't heard about what's happening, have a quick read here.

If you regularly patch computers and servers, you’re not at risk. An update to mitigate the vulnerability was released in March, but note that Microsoft just released an update for Windows XP and Windows 2003 on May 13th 2017.

For more information: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS17-010 (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms17-010.aspx).

KB numbers:
KB4012598, KB4012212, KB4012213, KB4012214, KB4012215, KB4012216, KB4012217, KB4012598, KB4012606, KB4013198, KB4013429.