Healthcare and manufacturing organizations with unpatched legacy systems are still at risk from the ransomware known as WannaCry.
You may think a security researcher activated a killswitch in the malware code, and that was the end of WannaCry.
But WannaCry is still out there, being used in attacks. Citing a report from a security firm, HealthITSecurity said WannaCry was reportedly behind 30 percent of all ransomware attacks during the third quarter of 2018. Further, there were devices infected by WannaCry that weren’t addressed during the attack, which continued its spread to other computers.
Manufacturing and healthcare are prime targets for WannaCry, given their reliance upon a large number of older or unmanaged devices that are difficult to patch “due to operational complexities,” the report said.
HealthITSecurity also said nearly 70% of healthcare organizations operate on Windows 7, which will reach the end of its lifecycle next year. The report said that could leave a large swath of healthcare devices unsupported – and prime targets for ransomware.
If your organization is in that situation, give us a call – we may be able to help get all your technology up to date.