Brunei warns against "Petya" ransomware threat

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-30 00:08:47|Editor: huaxia
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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Bruneians should be cautious of the global spread of another ransomware inspired by WannaCry, identified as Petya, the country's computer emergency agency said on Thursday evening.

According to Brunei Computer Emergency Response Team (BruCERT), Petya is more dangerous and intrusive as its behavior is to encrypt the partitions of the computer and prevents victims from booting up.

Petya spread via email spam with booby-trapped Windows Office documents. The documents, once opened, will download and run the Petya installer and execute the worm to spread to other computers.

Brunei's National Security Committee through the Cyber Security Working Committee said they will continue to monitor the situation and urge the public to take necessary precautions such as performing vital data backup, updating computer systems and antivirus software, deleting suspicious emails and not clicking on any suspicious links.

Ransomware is a type of malware virus that takes over a computer and prevents users accessing data until a ransom is paid. In most cases, the software infects computers via links or attachments in malicious messages known as phishing e-mails. Enditem

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