BizCare Service Desk

New Ransomware Variant Surges

WannaCry just faded from the headlines. But ransomware has surged into the news again with a new malware variant, that we have named Nyetya, wreaking havoc in networks globally.

What does this mean? It means attackers don’t rest – but rather they innovate. They evolve. Of course we must too.

Nyetya is nasty because it encrypts the master boot record (like a table of contents for a hard drive) of a computer. Not good. Once it enters a system, it uses three ways to spread automatically in a network, one of which is the known Eternal Blue vulnerability, which WannaCry used as well. Also bad.

Some infections may even be associated with a familiar tax accounting software package to get its foot in the door when initially infecting networks.

For a world-class, in-depth analysis on Nyetya, see our security partner's blog by Cisco Security’s threat intelligence team, covering how the ransomware operates and what security protections will keep you safe against it.