Are UK companies more ignorant, or just more honest?
Strong and stable, my arse. UK wobbles when coping with ransomware
A third of businesses have suffered a ransomware attack in the last 12 months, according to a new survey sponsored by Malwarebytes. Globally, most organisations experienced some form of attack or breach during the past year, with 35 per cent suffering a ransomware attack specifically. Ransomware demands are relatively low, …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 27th July 2017 12:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
Where are Malwarebytes getting their figures?
Their figures contradict my experiences. I know of some companies that have been attacked as I've helped them resolve the problems.
I work for a software house and we have about 100 customers. 3 of them have had files destroyed by ransomware in the last 12 months. They all had their files recovered by the next working day.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 12:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: That makes for dire reading...
At least the French aren't daft enough to do a Frexit.
There's a storm coming because too many people think we are smart enough to stand on our own feet in the modern world. Look at all the Finance and IT jobs we're losing already. Would you rather being making deals with Trump or Europe, I know which I prefer.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 14:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: That makes for dire reading...
Look at all the Finance and IT jobs we're losing already.
Really? Which ones? How do they compare with France which has twice the unemployment rate of the UK? Or Germany, whose BMW has just confirmed massive investment for building electric Minis in the UK, Brexit be damned?
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Thursday 27th July 2017 14:44 GMT James 51
Re: That makes for dire reading...
Actually BMW annouced a tiny investment. That assembly line is already producing minis so that is the cheapest place to start manufacturing the electric ones. It is when there are totally new lines for which the retooling for costs as much as a new factory, that is when we'll know which way the wind is blowing.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 15:50 GMT CustardGannet
Re: That makes for dire reading...
"...raging wildfires aside, the food and weather and health service are generally much better"
I think you forgot the wine, public transport, education system, housing, and general quality of life.
The French cops are still a bunch of racist twunts who don't give a damn about liberte, egalite, or fraternite, though.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 16:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: That makes for dire reading...
Believe me French public transport is not an example to copy. TGVs might be nice (if massively subsidised) but their commuter trains make the old Network Southeast look competent. And that's when they're not on strike. The education system isn't so hot these days either, slipping well down world tables.
I'll grant you the wine, even if British fizz sometimes beats Champagne these days. If only they could make decent beer, instead of that fizzy yellow muck.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 16:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
"The French cops are still a bunch of racist twunts "
And you'd better not get on the wrong side of the border cops.
Allegedly hired from ex Foreign Legionnaires with anger management issues and as an organization self financing.
In theory they only operate within 20Km of a point of entry. However if they suspect a light plane or parachute is involved they could declare anywhere a PoE.
Steer well clear at all times. Anon to avoid any visits from Monsieur Plod
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Sunday 30th July 2017 19:42 GMT James 51
Re: That makes for dire reading...
Yes, the NHS beat the EU health care system in every category except outcomes. So as long as you don't count stuff like dying sooner if you have cancer, it is the best. BTW I do think the NHS is great, it has been beaten and battered by the Tories who want to farm out as much to the private sector as possible and that is easier if they run it down first.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 15:50 GMT Tigra 07
Re: That makes for dire reading...
I know it's fashionable to criticise the NHS, but...
We have the better healthcare system:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40608253
And similar weather, but less rain:
http://www.weather-guide.com/country/england-france-weather.html
Food is a matter of taste, but they win that one
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Thursday 27th July 2017 12:38 GMT iron
"Brit organisations who admitted any ransomware problems said they had been hit more than five times during the past year"
Fire your IT dept / outsourced IT company and hire someone who knows what they are doing. I'd also get rid of whichever idiot is clicking on links in dodgy emails but it's probably the CEO.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 12:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
Easy to mitigate
-Patch your o/s monthly
-Regularly patch your Apps that open files (word/pdf etc) regularly
-Don't run an o/s or app that is no longer in patching support
-Run anti-virus & update hourly and AV scan on demand all files
-Scan incoming email using AV and block .exe attachments
-Scan and block sites when web browsing using a web proxy and AV scanner
-Set web browsers to block adverts and flash
-Use a localhosts file to sinkhole malware and advert sites to 127.0.0.1
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Thursday 27th July 2017 14:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
I'll take your yellow crayon - possibly only dropped once...
But why is English biz so ready to pay a ransom to a bunch of crims who don't really care if your files are given back once they have your money? more akin to pay&hopeware!
take backups, retain backups, and ensure you have controlled access to shared resources.
dontpay, they'll still take it away!
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Thursday 27th July 2017 14:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
All the brexit/remain comments again, to be fair they are fun to read.
Why not settle it with a simple upvote for yes and downvote for no?
You can insert whatever question you want, that way you can complain about something or support something.
It might make you feel better about the situation or it might make you feel worse, odds are about 50/50.
Personally I voted not to remain but stay in with a soft brexit falling back on to WTO rules and staying as part of the EU.
Back to the article, common sense tells me that as English is the 3rd most spoken language it's going be targeted by more ransom ware than France where French is the 18th (Native Speakers Source:Wikipedia)
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Thursday 27th July 2017 17:10 GMT John Smith 19
You do wonder about the British response
Because until you've had an infection you don't really know how you'll cope. The question calls for a judgement call which on how it will be handled and on the day the team may just pull it together and stomp all over it.
Likewise 5 times in 1 year sounds very bad.
But does that mean "log shows another attempted entry. That's 5 this year" or "S**t have the ERP files have been hit again?"
I'd like to hope IRL it means the first time caused a fair bit of chaos but that was a wake up to get their s**t together, with the other 4 being easily fended off.
Attention British IT staff.
Yes, ransomware is a thing. Good standard procedures (listed earlier in the thread) will cut down your risks a lot.
If you are not using them, why not?
If you think "It can't happen to us, we're too small" think again.
On the internet everyone is the same size (to malware) and everyone is the same distance away. Infecting you is really no bother to them. They can infect a few dozen more while you're still deciding if you have been infected.
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Friday 28th July 2017 17:07 GMT John Smith 19
"Mandatory Access Control..is available on Windows...Why doesn't anyone use it?
Good questions.
Probably because
a) It either has, or is expected to have a massive performance hit
b) People don't think it will work, because it's Microsoft
c) It's defaults are too generous to users
d) It has too few levels to deliver adequate granularity of protection.
e) It requires actual management. IE someone has to decide this is needed, authorize someone to do it and see it gets done IE rolled out to all users.
Those are the obvious answers. Never having used it I cannot see what the real barrier is.
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Thursday 27th July 2017 19:29 GMT TheElder
Never mind a CEO
One must think at the average user level. How many people know what a file extension is never mind ever seeing one? EXE? APP? BAT? BIN? and so on...
I also filter out quite a few countries on my server along with a rather long list of personally selected key words. Things like how to have three legs instead of just two...
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Friday 28th July 2017 01:54 GMT veti
Clickbait
1,054 companies across six countries - does not look to me like a solid basis for statistical comparisons between countries.
It's probably good enough for a decent "overall" international average, but the sample size in any one country is just too small to draw meaningful conclusions.
Nothing to see here.