The Padilla's Project

Looks like it’s time to change passwords again. Security researchers have discovered a massive database of login credentials — over 560 million emails and passwords — put together by an unknown person. All of the information is insecure. The database was discovered by the  Kromtech Security Research Center , who ran the information with  Troy Hunt . Most of the information is already on Hunt’s  Have I Been Pwned  site, which allows users to see if their accounts have been compromised in previous data breaches. [ Read more here... ]

So finally I’ve found enough time between emails and Skype calls to write up on the crazy events which occurred over Friday, which was supposed to be part of my week off (I made it a total of 4 days without working, so there’s that). You’ve probably read about the WannaCrypt fiasco on several news sites, but I figured I’d tell my story. I woke up at around 10 AM and checked onto the UK cyber threat sharing platform where i had been following the spread of the Emotet banking malware, something which seemed incredibly significant until today. There were a few of your usual posts about various organisations being hit with ransomware, but nothing significant…yet. I ended up going out to lunch with a friend, meanwhile the WannaCrypt ransomware campaign had entered full swing. [ Read more here... ]

Next time someone links you to  whatsapp .com, make sure you take a second look. There’s some adware currently circulating around the web by tricking users to visit a ‘шһатѕарр.com’ domain instead. Yes, those are different URLs – the fake URL uses characters from the Cyrillic alphabet. [ Read more here... ]

Friday saw the largest global ransomware attack in internet history, and the world did not handle it well. We’re only beginning to calculate the damage inflicted by the WannaCry program — in both dollars and lives lost from hospital downtime — but at the same time, we’re also calculating blame. There’s a long list of parties responsible, including the criminals,  the NSA , and the victims themselves — but the most controversial has been Microsoft itself. The attack exploited a Windows networking protocol to spread within networks, and while Microsoft released a patch nearly two months ago, it’s become painfully clear that patch didn’t reach all users. Microsoft was following the best practices for security and still left hundreds of thousands of computers vulnerable, with dire consequences. Was it good enough? [ Read more here... ]

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have uncovered new evidence linking the WannaCry ransomware code to North Korea.  In a post today , the group detailed a segment of code used in both an early WannaCry variant and a February 2015 sample attributed to the Lazarus Group, a Kaspersky-tracked actor tied to the North Korean government. The overlap was first spotted by Google researcher Neal Mehta, and Kaspersky believes the similarity goes far beyond shared code. “We strongly believe the February 2017 sample was compiled by the same people,” Kaspersky writes, “or by people with access to the same source code as the May 2017 WannaCry encryptor used in the May 11th wave of attacks.” [ Read more here... ]

As the massive WannaCry ransomware attack spread to over  100 countries this weekend , French automaker Renault halted production in several of its factories on Saturday,  according to a spokesperson .  Speaking to  Automotive News , the spokesperson confirmed that the company shut down production in its Sandouville factory, saying that “proactive measures have been put in place, including the temporarily suspension of industrial activity at some sites," but declined to provide a full list of affected sites. Renault’s partner company Nissan was also affected: a  UK spokesperson confirmed  that files at its Sunderland factory were impacted on Friday night, but wouldn’t confirm reports that production was halted. A Renault spokesperson  told Reuters  that the company expects that “nearly all plants” will reopen on Monday.  [ Read more here... ]