Ukrainians warned of major new viruses

Many companies have not learned the lessons of the last PE

No sooner had the Ukrainian companies and enterprises to recover from the recent massive hacking attack that occurred at the end of last month, as the Ukrainians warned of another impending cyber.

As told in the Police, to accurately predict when criminals will produce the next attack — is difficult. But the main problem is that many companies have not made the appropriate conclusions after the last incident.

“When will the next wave, one week, two, three — is unknown. But after the last attack, only 10% of companies made its network in proper condition. That is, any precautions most companies have not taken, and it could happen again” — said a senior inspector for special assignments of the Department of police of national police of Ukraine Vyacheslav Martsinkevich.
In the past the infected software was used, which has got access to almost all data on the computer. The malware had administrative access, and in most cases, the program was included in the exceptions to the antivirus. So a malicious code easily got into computers, experts say.

“The updates also come sometimes some “Trojans”. Accordingly, it is possible that it could happen again,” added Martsinkevich.

That hacker attacks will continue, believe and other experts. However, they added that intelligent professionals who could not only competently prepare for the attack, but also to minimize its consequences, in the camp of very little.
“Intrusion continued for the next week after the main attack. This suggests that companies did not know how to behave in such situation”, — said the founder of RMRF Technology Andrey Pastushenko.

The shortage of IT professionals confirmed not so much the companies themselves, but also in Ukraine. Even after almost a month after a virus attack not everyone else managed to overcome fully its implications — a simple pros who work in companies that are not able to build a good security system.

Therefore, experts say, it makes sense to create separate departments for cyber security and not to assign these functions a classic IT departments. “Every organization needs to look at their vulnerabilities in these “Windows” to increase “readiness”. This is the first. The second — the Americans presented the fundamental principle of cyber-security: expect your defense, based on the fact that sooner or later you will crack. So prepare procedures for data retention and rapid recovery”, says R&D Director, “it Integrator” Vladimir Coorg.
According to rough estimates of experts, a few weeks ago, the infestation has been around 150 thousand computers Ukrainian users. Hackers managed to extract from them about 10 thousand dollars.

But experts say that the main goal of hackers was still just to destabilize the situation in the country, as many locked files, and for decoding which of the extorted money, is destroyed and cannot be recovered.

Representatives of the commercial IT sector even thinking to join forces to combat hackers and to create a kind of cyber self-defence to be able to exchange information quickly and competently to build protection from future attacks.
“You need to create several specialized commercial CERT-s, points of information exchange that will collaborate with government agencies to develop everything from methodologies and metrics, threats to the instructions in case of threats. And to help each other, including financial, to restore the systems,” says it-businessman, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Octave Capital” Alexander Kardakov.

State agencies also are working hard to repel the impending cyber-waves. So, according to experts, the Cabinet at a forthcoming meeting, intends to approve the state Protocol of joint actions at the time of the attacks.

This refers to the regulations, the granting of powers to the constituent entities of cybersecurity (government agencies), to have the ability to react quickly to counter hacking attacks. “Such a Protocol is generated, it is prepared for approval by the Cabinet,” — said the expert of the information security apparatus of the national security and defense Council of Ukraine Nadezhda Litvinchuk.

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