{"id":11308,"date":"2016-03-31T19:55:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T02:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=11308"},"modified":"2016-03-31T19:55:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T02:55:47","slug":"cyberstew-security-safety-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=11308","title":{"rendered":"CyberStew: Security, Safety, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8188\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/cardboard-safe.jpg\" alt=\"userpic=cardboard-safe\" width=\"100\" height=\"86\" \/>In advance of the silliness tomorrow, here&#8217;s some serious cyber-related news chum:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ransomware on the Attack<\/strong>. There is a particularly nasty new ransomware out there called Petya. It&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/boingboing.net\/2016\/03\/28\/ransomware-gets-a-lot-faster-b.html\">nasty because it encrypts your disk extremely fast<\/a>. How does it do it? When the ransomware is installed, the master boot record (MBR) is replaced with a malicious loader and the system is then forcefully rebooted. This then causes Windows machines to load the malicious code rather than the operating system. A screen then appears which pretends to be the system tool check disk (CHKDSK) and runs a &#8216;scan.&#8217; As this fake scan proceeds, Petya is encrypting the Master File Table on the drive.\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/new-ransomware-skips-files-encrypts-your-whole-hard-drive\/#ftag=RSSbaffb68\">Two tables encrypted, and your drive is toast<\/a>. What can you do? Of course, be careful on that which you click. Cisco has <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.cisco.com\/security\/detecting-ransomware-from-the-outside-looking-in?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CiscoBlogSecurity+%28Security%29\">a good article on detecting ransomware<\/a>, and Bitdefender has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/3049179\/security\/free-bitdefender-tool-prevents-locky-other-ransomware-infections-for-now.html#tk.rss_all\">a free tool that supposedly modifies your system so ransomware thinks it is already infected<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Toshiba Batteries: Halt and Catch Fire<\/strong>. If you have a Toshiba laptop (as I do), you should know that there is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/3050377\/hardware\/major-toshiba-laptop-battery-recall-issued-after-faulty-units-overheat-and-literally-melt.html#tk.rss_all\">a major recall in place for Toshiba batteries<\/a>. It could affect you if you bought your system between 2011 and 2016. Slashdot has <a href=\"https:\/\/hardware.slashdot.org\/story\/16\/03\/31\/1921221\/toshiba-recalls-more-than-100000-faulty-laptop-batteries?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&amp;utm_medium=feed\">a bit more information, including a link to download a program to check your battery<\/a>. I did. My system is safe.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Windows 10 on the Attack<\/strong>. Last week I provided some advice on how to prevent automatic Windows 10 upgrades. PCWorld has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/3048836\/windows\/never10-is-a-free-app-for-when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-want-windows-10.html#tk.rss_all\">an article on a free utility that will control automatic and unwanted upgrades to Windows 10<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Antisemitic Printer Attacks<\/strong>. Here&#8217;s another attack in the news: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/2016\/03\/28\/campus-printers-hacked-programmed-print-anti-semitic-fliers-friday-saturday\/\">A White Supremacist group took advantage of unprotected printers on college campuses and made them all print antisemitic flyers<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unsafe Hospitals<\/strong>. Think your medical equipment is safe. Think again. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmagazine.com\/nearly-1500-vulnerabilities-found-in-automated-medical-equipment\/article\/486497\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SCMagazineHome+%28SC+Magazine%29\">Nearly 1,500 vulnerabilities have been found in automated medical equipment<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tracking on Android<\/strong>. On a lighter note, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenbot.com\/article\/3040383\/android\/how-to-track-your-friends-and-family-on-android.html#tk.rss_all\">here is some Android software you can use to <del>stalk<\/del> track your friends<\/a>. Hopefully it is better than Friendfinder, which I find to be somewhat flakey on Android.<\/li>\n<li><strong>And We Bow our Heads<\/strong>. Lastly, <a href=\"http:\/\/boingboing.net\/2016\/03\/27\/lament-for-the-hard-drive.html\">here&#8217;s a lament for the hard drive<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In advance of the silliness tomorrow, here&#8217;s some serious cyber-related news chum: Ransomware on the Attack. There is a particularly nasty new ransomware out there called Petya. It&#8217;s nasty because it encrypts your disk extremely fast. How does it do it? When the ransomware is installed, the master boot record (MBR) is replaced with a <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=11308\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,98],"tags":[251],"class_list":["post-11308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-security","tag-modern-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11309,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11308\/revisions\/11309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}