It seems that the ransomware WannaCry, which put our security at risk in May and was long considered dead, is still showing signs of life: experts have detected that it has a new victim, especially vulnerable during vacation season. A variation of the virus has reached hotel wi-fi.
Remnants of WannaCry have now started to take shape in a new attack called GAMEFISH that affects customers connecting to hotel wi-fi. This attack works in the same way as the original, taking advantage of how vulnerable some outdated computer systems are.
Ransomware works like this: hackers send infected emails to the email addresses of leading hotel groups in Europe. They pose as tourists looking for a room at the last minute and send an attachment that apparently is a reservation form for that hotel.
In reality, the attachment, innocently named Hotel_Reservation_Form.doc, is a malicious attachment that infects PCs that aren’t updated. If the receptionist opens the file on a not-so-new computer, it becomes infected, as well as other PCs on the same network. Since the virus spreads via wi-fi, this could mean it infects many hotel guests’ computers.
How can something like this be avoided? Tip # 1 is always the same: UPDATE. Make sure your PC has the latest version of Windows, as there’s no better defense against viruses.
Besides this basic advice, we’ll leave you with this useful video about 6 more tricks to keep ransomware at bay.
Source: Computer Hoy
