The Horseman of the Digital Apocalypse Is A Virus Named Petya

By

The NewCo Daily: Today’s Top Stories

Christoph Scholz | Flickr

That virus that shut down networks around the world this week, the one that’s been dubbed Petya, isn’t propagating like crazy anymore. But as we’ve learned more about it, it has begun to look even more consequential — less of a disaster than a prophecy.

Point one: Petya turns out not to be “ransomware” at all. It asked users to pay money to free their data, but their data has already been deleted (The Verge).

Read More

We’ve Got To Stop Crashing Like This

By

The NewCo Daily: Today’s Top Stories


Ransomware attacks — in which virally propagated malware spreads from computer to computer, locking up owners’ data until a ransom is paid — are becoming a regular thing. Yesterday the latest one emerged in Europe, hobbling banks, communications systems, and power companies in Ukraine and spreading sporadically around the world (The Guardian).

The new attack is similar to the Wannacry incident last month in that it exploits an old vulnerability in Microsoft Windows — if you’re up to date, you should be safe — and depends, at least in part, on hacking tools originally developed by the NSA.

Read More

The Need for a Digital Geneva Convention

By

Shift Forum OpEd

Governments can and must do more

By Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft

Responding to the rise in nation-state cybersecurity attacks

This article was originally published on the Microsoft on the Issues blog on February 14th, 2017.


Read More

Has Your Dropbox Been Hacked? Here’s a Quick Way to Check

By

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

It seems like just about every day there’s news about an online service getting hacked. If you log into your Dropbox account and get a feeling something funny’s going on, there’s an easy way to check to see if your account is still secure.

Click on your avatar in the upper-right side of the screen and then click on Settings in the drop down menu.


Read More