Another nameless, faceless adversary (or as the U.S Army calls them “the enemy with no face”) struck again in the last week of June. Hot on the heels of WannaCry attack in May, the Petya ransomware campaign brought widespread disruption to organizations, government agencies, and infrastructure worldwide.

As the worldwide fallout of the WannaCry ransomware virus continues and the blame game starts, the worldwide attack underscores the need for basic security hygiene, updating of operating systems, and regular patching writes DLT Chief Cybersecurity Technologist, Don Maclean.

On May 12 a ransomware virus, WannaCry, was released on the Internet and rapidly spread to hundreds of thousands of Microsoft Windows based computers in over 150 countries.  The malware encrypts critical files on a computer, such as Excel, Word, and other important files, and seeks out backup copies for encryption as well.  Once it infects a system, it requires the victim to pay approximately $300 in digital currency (Bitcoin), and immediately tries to find other systems to infect.