The Value Bitcoin has surpassed $10,000!!!

The digital currency rose to as complete as $10,125 on CoinMarketCap, drawing an approximately 950% gain year-to-date (YTD).

At this level, the cryptocurrency had a business capitalization of $169.2 billion, making it more worthy than corporate heavyweights like Walt Disney Co. and Merck & Co.

Investing in crypto coins or tokens is highly uncertain and the market is largely unchecked. Anyone viewing it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.

While Bitcoin broke into $10,000 on several trades, it did not surpass this key level throughout.

The digital currency passed $10,000 on Bithumb, Coin one, and Korbit, but had declined to climb past this level on any U.S. exchanges at the time of the report.

On Bitfinex, for instance, Bitcoin had risen to as extremely as $9,999 in the last 24 hours, but had not surpassed $10,000.

Arthur Hayes, co-founder, and CEO of leveraged digital currency program BitMEX, stated that he will not hold the $10,000 level broken till Bitcoin rises above that mark on major U.S. exchanges including GDAX.

He added that “Additionally, I do not acknowledge the level occurred until the price tests it as the backer on a down move, and it holds.”

Tim Enneking, leading director of Crypto Asset Management, showed that while Bitcoin has failed to surpass $10,000 on several major exchanges, he is confident that it will.

As for where Bitcoin prices will go next, analysts offered mix input.

The “Next price target is 20k,” said Charles Hayter, co-founder, and CEO of digital currency platform CryptoCompare. “A lot of investors will be hitting themselves for not jumping on boards sooner.”

Hayes gave an even more optimistic figure, stating that once Bitcoin meets his standard for breaking through $10,000, his next target is $50,000, a level he has set for the end of next year.

A handful of other analysts contributed more modest forecasts, including Enneking, who stated that “I suspect the price will be playing around 10k for a while.”

Jeff Koyen, a strategic advisor to 360 Blockchain Inc a company that invests in blockchain-based technology, stressed that Bitcoin could suffer some downside in the near-term.

He predicted that Bitcoin wouldn’t stay above $10,000 for quite long, but it also wouldn’t suffer a “major correction.”

BitTorrent protocol is currently being throttled by ComCast

Pai’s claim is usually countered with the actual history of Internet service providers preventing or throttling Internet traffic or applications. The most pre-eminent example is Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing. Pai thus had to battle with these real-world examples in his new proposal to eliminate net neutrality rules.

Pai’s solution has occurred to argue that these blocking and throttling events stopped after public pressure, that they haven’t occurred much since, and likely won’t happen again. Of course, the most obvious reason that net neutrality invasions have been rare since Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent is that the FCC has supported net neutrality rules since 2010 aside from a year-long farce without rules caused by a Verizon lawsuit.

But to Pai, this just shows that the rules aren’t necessary.

“Because of the paucity of strong evidence of harms to the openness of the Internet, the Order and its advocates have heavily relied on purely speculative threats,” Pai’s proposal says. “We do not believe hypothetical harms, unsupported by empirical data, economic theory, or even fresh anecdotes, provide a basis for public-utility regulation of ISPs.”

Pai is breaking with preceding FCC Republicans with his attempt to downplay the importance of Comcast/BitTorrent.

In 2008, the FCC then led by Bush appointee Kevin Martin argued in its determination to punish Comcast that BitTorrent file sharing had “become a competitive threat to cable speculators such as Comcast because Internet users have the possibility to view the high-quality video with BitTorrent that they might otherwise watch on cable television.” The threat was especially acute to Comcast’s video-on-demand service, the 2008 FCC also said.

When Comcast consumers noticed trouble with BitTorrent downloads, Comcast “misleadingly rejected any responsibility for the customers’ problems,” Martin’s FCC said.

“Although Comcast warrants that its conduct is necessary to ease network press, we conclude that the company’s discriminatory and absolute practice unduly squelches the dynamic benefits of an open and accessible Internet and does not authorize reasonable network management,” the FCC said, while requiring Comcast to take steps to prevent it from happening again.

20 Best Websites To Learn Ethical Hacking At Home

Collection of 20 best websites to learn ethical hacking online with online hacking tutorials 2016. As you all might be knowing about hacking, it is the process in which hackers use to find some security flaws in the networking system and then use that flaws to enter the system or you can say to crack the system.Many people want to learn hacking so that they can use the tricks to hack the accounts, systems etc. of their knowing ones or they can even use that to crack the major systems illegally also.Those people who act in a wise way and don not use their skills for causing any harm and are also certified legally as hackers are called ethical hackers.If you also want to learn hacking and also want to be ethically certified then you will need to learn some hacking skills for that.People those who are busy and have less time to go through coaching sessions can learn the required skills online.Here in this article are the best websites that you can surf to learn ethical hacking.Just go through the article to know about the websites.

1.Eccouncil:(CEH Ethical Hacking Course)

This is the best ever site where you get a great comprehensive knowledge about hacking.This site provides you with a subscription for various courses that differ by time period also.You can join this site if you want to learn great concepts of hacking and want to become ethical hacker.

2.Hack a day

You get great hacking tips and tricks on this site and these are also updated on daily basis.This site could be a great option for those who are willing to learn some awesome tricks and are new to the world of hacking.Just have a look at the site and you will find it really useful.

3.Hacking Tutorial

This site provides you with a vast stuff related to the hacking tips and tricks.It also provides you with new tools and softwares that you can use for hacking purposes.There is also a news section available in the site where you get about great stuff related to the updated hacking world.

4.Learn Hacking

Either you are new to the hacking world or you are a professionalism here in this site you get all the beginner to advance level tips and tricks for learning hacking.This site includes the categories like website hacking, facebook hacking, system hacking etc. and you get all the possible tricks on these categories.

5.Hack A Day

The another site that provides you with cool stuff related to the hacking tricks and tips.All the stuff is well managed and is categorized in a great manner on this site.Just go through it once after having subscribed and you shall find it very good place for you to learn hacking.

6.Evilzone Forum

Evilzone is a type of hacking forum where hackers can participate and give up their own feedback that can consist of hacking tricks etc. Here on this site you will find enormous questions and answers regarding ethical hacking.To use up this site you will need to register to get your ID to raise your questions there. Probably professional hackers can post solution to your queries.

7.Break The Security

Break The Security is one of the leading sites where you get great news ,articles about the IT world.You get latest news updates related to information security, hacking, malwares on this site.There are some the courses available on this site and on joining these courses you can learn the Ethical hacking.

8.Hack This Site

This is the another major forum based site where you get vast knowledge about legal Ethical hacking.You get great training topics about legal hacking tricks.If you are also dedicated to learn the ethical hacking then you can join this site and subscribe to get the beginner to advance level knowledge from the site.

9.SecTools

As the name suggests, this site preferably gives you the knowledge of security hacking tools.Not only this site provides the whole details about the tools but also provides some great stuff on hacking tricks and tips.If you are wondering about which tool you can use for hacking purposes and how you can use that tool then you should consider to surf through this site.

10. Hack In The Box

The best popular website that provides users with security news and happenings from the hacking world. In this site you can find some enormous content based on hacking articles about Microsoft, Apple, Linux, Programming etc.On this forum like site, users can discuss with each others to find the solutions for different tricks.

11.Happy Hacker

If you are a beginner and are finding some way to learn pretty hacking tricks that are not of advance level and are almost harmless then you can direct to this very useful site.This site provides some cool stuff for beginners and you can also get to learn some amazing tricks for your computer system too.

12.Code Academy

The very popular website that users can use to enhance their hacking skills and they will also learn a number of tutorials related to security, networking and hacking.It uses three easy methods learn, practice and use so as to make you learn the tricks.

13.Hacking Loops

Get numerous articles based on white hat hacking and each articles in this website seems to be very interesting.You also get some of the cool posts in this site like “How to stop virus attacks”, “Game ranger hack for range of empires” etc.Look inside the awesome world presented on this site and you will get to learn amazing hacking tricks that would also prove to be very helpful for you if you want to become ethical hacker.

14.Explore Hacking

This is the best website for the beginners because this site is very keen on providing low level to higher level hacking tutorials.Your learnings become more interesting as you also get to see screenshots for many tutorials.That’s the best way to learn the complicated hacking tricks in an easy way.

15.Learn Hacking

The best ethical hacking learning site where you get some great level tutorials for the amazing hacking tricks. It covers topics such as “Hacking Windows OS” , “Virus hacking”,etc. This site also has a forum included in it that can help you to share your views about the content on the site and this can also help you to communicate with many people for discussions on some topic.

16.Packet Storm Security

The security related vulnerabilities all over the Internet are well discussed on this site. It gives you the tutorials on how to find those vulnerabilities and attack them before they can cause any mishap.You can also submit your security exploit that you has found if you can do so.The site will pay you for your content about the security exploit.

17.Metasploit

Get the daily updated news based on the security premises on this site. On this site you also get a chance to use and learn Metasploit software which is a popular Penetration testing software.The software is free to be downloaded. The Pro version is also available with 14 days trial pack.This site generally focuses on the online issues related to the security and you also get most topics related to that only.

18.Backtrack Linux

Backtrack software i.e the best penetration testing software that is even used by the professionals to keep their system secure.You get the chance to learn this software on this site after you are subscribed for it.This site is therefore great for learning penetration testing.

19.Hell Bound Hackers

The famous hacking site that you can use to surf to find the security related hacking tricks.This site also helps you to learn the most advance security cracking for almost any network or system.Just give this site a try if you are willing to hack the security walls of systems or networks.But be sure as this site is for those who want to learn ethical hacking and not for black or grey hat hackers.

20.From DEV

Preferably not an ethical hacking tutorial website but it does suggests the users about various websites to get the latest hacking tutorials.This site is really a great way for those who are not able to find the hacking tutorials for their topics.This site will help these users find the quick results to their searches as this site has links with many great sites around the network that provides the hacking knowledge.

As we all know that Black hat hacking is the worst part of online world where it creates security threats. Instead of wearing Black hat, try the pure White hat. Fighting against security threats is always fun, interesting with seriousness. That’s why developers are creating Security software programs, Anti virus apps. If you are interested in hacking, learn ethical hacking and set up a goal to protect the online environment. So, be a king in Ethical hacking.

10 Best Books for Ethical Hacking

Best books to learn ethical hacking. Books are always the best way to gain knowledge as these can be read anytime with ease.There are methods to learn hacking on internet through ebooks and pdf etc. but to learn it best I recommend you to use up the books as there are books available for learning hacking skills.Here in this article I will show you the best books that are available in the market that carries the great incense of hacking tricks.Through these books you will also learn the methods of hacking various systems and accounts.Below are some of the best books for learning ethical hacking and some of these can even help you make like a pro hacker.

List Of Books To Learn Ethical Hacking

1. Metasploit: The Penetration Tester’s Guide

This book deals with the penetration testing and is very benificial for the beginner’s those who are just new to world of hacking.In this book the reader will surely get great knowledge about starting in the hacker’s world
and will also get sufficient knowledge of Penetration test and Metasploit.

2. Hacking:The Art of Exploitation,2nd Edition

Popular among many ethical hackers this book will provide you with great knowledge about obstacles that the
beginners may be facing during the beginning of their hacking proffession.This second edition from Jon Erickson contains some essential material that you will surely has to go through before starting up your journey in the hacker’s world.

3. The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing

This book have in it the chapters that will surely make your level of Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing to the next level if it is not your beginning.The book is very good for those who want to be serious fo doing hacking as this book also gives you some great knowledge of getting access to the system.

4. CEH Certified Ethical Hacker All-In-One exam guide

As the name of the book describes it is the all in one book for those who are findinga great masterpiece to learn the art of hacking.In general before going through this book the reader must have some knowledge of basic networking to take the full advantage of the crisp and clear writing along with some relevant examples that are also present in this book.

5. Comp TIA Security: Get Certified Get Ahead:SYO-301 Study Guide

This book contains the content writen in easy and straightforward way about some complicated topics that are presented in an excellent way so that the reader gains alot in a joyful manner.It contains great topics about security hacking techniques that will surely be very helpful.This book also contains over 450 realistic test papers with in-depth explanations.

6. CEH Certified Ethical Hacker Study Guide

This book provides about all the sufficient ethical hacking stuff and also contains the real world scenarios and excercises that will help to increase your knowledge of hacking.This book is also avilable in electronic flashcards and pdf so you can also read it in your palm sized device also.

7. The CEH Prep Guide

It is the certified book that will take you through various computer security environment features.This will help you to understand the security wall of the computer system and hence you can be able to process through the hacking skill to ultimately hack any system.This book from S. Rao Vallabhaneni consists of about
2,250 Questions and their explanations.

8.Certified Ethical Hacker Exam

To get some clear, concise and technical information about the ethical hacking you should go for this book from ExamPrep.This book has helped many people to learn the hacking and for this reason you should also give it a try if you do want something great about learning hacking.

9. CEH:Official certified Ethical Hacker Review Guide

Provides about excellent overview of the objectives of CEH that will help you the terminology and tools for hacking.This Official Certified Ethical Hacker Guide is the one tap place where you will get the ultimate hacking
knowledge and that also have in it about every question and also the great explanation of these questions that you will need.

10. Official Certified Ethical Hacker Review Guide

The book is for those who want about every major concepts and techniques and step by step tutorials about ethical hacking.It contains about every high end material that will provide you the great knowledge about hacking.If you don’t want to buy about a bundle of books to learn the hacking then you should buy this one for sure.

Pentesting: How Hackers Use This Method To Hack

All about- what is pentesting and how hacking is done by hackers by pentesting and its tools 2016. Penetration test or sometimes pentest ,is a type of attack on the software of the computer system in which the hackers usually looks for the weaknesses in the security potential so as to gain access to the computer’s data and the features.Here in this article you will know how hackers do pentesting or simply penetration testing to gain access to the system.

Need for Pentesting:

Financial sectors like banks,Investment banking etc needs their data to be secured and they ensure it by using penetration testing.It can also be done to make some systems more secure and to check and remove their secuirity flaws also.

Types of Pentesting:

According to the scope of the test the pentesting is divided in three types that are Black Box testing,White box testing,Grey box testing.In black box testing the tester has no information and knowledge about systems to be tested and in White box testing the tester is usually provided with all information and knowledge of the system that is required.In Grey box testing the tester is provided with partial information about the system that can be used for the further usage.

STEPS(Penetration testing):

1.Planning:In this step the scope and strategy of the assignment is determined and the existing security policies,standards are used so as to define up the goal.

2.Discovery:You just has to collect the information about the system including data in the system if possible.If you can access the most information about the system then further steps will become easy for you so try to gain as much data and information as you can.

3.Attacking:In this you just has to find the vunerable sites of the system and then using various methods you has to exploit it.By doing this process you just get into the system.

Professional hackers just do these steps by their own to find the necessary security issues but if you are beginner to the same then there are many software and tools available that can help you up in the process.
Some of the best tools that can be use for Pentesting are given below.These tools will collect the information about the security flaws and give you the report by itself.

Tools Used for Pentesting:

1. NMap :used to do port scanning,OS identification,trace the route and also for the Vulnerability scanning.This could provide you with all the issues and flaws security of the ports.

2. Pass-The-Hash: This tool will help you to check the security potential of passwords and logins of the systems or the network as the main purpose of this tool is to crack the passwords but as if for checking purposes it can be used in Pentesting also.

Conclusion: Pentesting could be very difficult task as very time you has to find up something new or you can say new flaws and issues with security of the system is to be found so as to strengthen the security more and more.You can also use the tools that can help you to do all this process easily.Hackers have great knowledge of the systems and networks so only they can do it but not everytime they reach their goals.So be sure that you could not get the results everytime you do this process of Pentesting.

How Hackers Use SQL Injections To Get Access Of Websites

There are many methods by which you can hack the websites but SQL Injection method is the one of the best techniques that is used preferably by many hacker.Using these techniques one can hack the database and information of the websites.Here in this article you will know how you can hack the websites using SQL Injection attack.Follow these steps given below to learn how to hack websites.

How Hackers Use SQL Injections To Get Access Of Websites

Before We start here are the things that you will need:
1.Havij SQL Injection tool
2.SQL vunerable site(take examplesite.com/catalogo_nuevos_detalle.php?id=2)

To check sql vunerable site add (‘) at the end of site url and if you get sql error in your syntax then it means your site is SQL vunerable.

Steps:

1.Open Havij and paste the site URL in the target field and then wait for havij to get details and databases of the website.

2.After that click on the available database of the site and click on Get Tables.On clicking Get Tables Havij will look for the tables available in the database.

3.After scanning Havij will get all the tables available.Here you has to just find the tables named as admin,users and something similarto these.Select the similar words and click on the Get Columns.Havij will then get all the coloumns available in the users table.

4.Now select the columns and then click on the Get Data.Havij will then look for the data available in coloumns login and password i.e username and password.The username and the password you get is encrypted in mdm language and not in real text.To crack the encrypted password just copy the password and click on the MD5 tab in Havij and paste the encrypted password in Md5 hash field and hit start.Havij will then try to crack the password.

5.Now click on Find Admin tab in Havij and then click Start.It will check the admin panel of the website.Open the admin panel in web browser and login with username and password and you are now in admin panel of the website.You has succesfully logged to the website and has hacked the website.

Conclusion:

Using the above steps you can hack up the website if it is vunerable to the Sql attack unless you can find out other ways also but to great extent the method of SQL attack is the best for the hacking of websites.The above steps is for Havij program but there are also many programs available that does the same process to hack up the websites.

Things To Know Before You Become a Hacker

How to become hacker and things to know to be a ethical hacker. Hacking is a no easy task that you could learn in a day or a month.It requires some huge time and knowledge unless you will never be able to hack anything as the security wall of networks has also developed greatly.The professional hackers were also like the freshers as you could be in the field of hacking but they never give up and learned the most that they could before starting with their profession so that they cannot get confused about things.Here in this article you will know the things that you should be familier with before you can start up with hacking.

1. Unix: It is the operating system of the internet which has to learn if you want to be a internet hacker as you cannot do it without knowing this system.The hackers today are the masters of Unix and they know its value in their profession of hacking.

2. HTML: Learning it means that you can now learn the programming languages and you will also be able to write them.This could be the base writing skill that could be required further for essential hacking processes.

3. Programing Language :These are the structural commands that process up some kind of task.These programing languages are best suited to define up any system.Lerning these languge means that you can easily do tricks will the commands and can hack the systems easily.Some of the best progarming languages that you could prefer is Python and C++.

4. Books: The books can contain the exact knowledge that can be used to learn something.There are lots of books available that are made to learn hacking only and these books can have some great lessons that a begginer could find up very usefull.Some of the books that are available today can make you learn the most of hacking skills.

5. Softwares: Most of the hacking tricks are done today by using some kind of applications or softwares and keeping this in mind one should gain the full knowledge of hacking softwares before starting to become a hacker.Knowledge of these softwares will make you more confined to your tasks and you will also understand and do up the hacking process more easily.

Conclusion: Above are the most important things that you should not forget to learn before you become a hacker
as these things will give you a sharp and bright start and will also help you to understand the hacking methods more easily.At all if you are clear with the basics then only you could understand the tough tasks easily later on.

Google Lens will let smartphone cameras understand what they see and take action

At Google’s I/O developer conference, CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new technology called Google Lens. The idea with the product is to leverage Google’s computer vision and AI technology in order to bring smarts directly to your phone’s camera. As the company explains, the smartphone camera won’t just see what you see, but will also understand what you see to help you take action.

During a demo, Google showed off how you could point your camera at something and Lens tells you what it is — like, it could identify the flower you’re preparing to shoot.

In another example, Pichai showed how Lens could do a common task — connecting you to a home’s Wi-Fi network by snapping a photo of the sticker on the router.

In that case, Google Lens could identify that it’s looking at a network’s name and password, then offer you the option to tap a button and connect automatically.

A third example was a photo of a business’s storefront — and Google Lens could pull up the name, rating and other business listing information in a card that appeared over the photo.

The technology basically turns the camera from a passive tool that’s capturing the world around you to one that’s allowing you to interact with what’s in your camera’s viewfinder.

Later, during a Google Home demonstration, the company showed how Lens would be integrated into Google Assistant. Through a new button in the Assistant app, users will be able to launch Lens and insert a photo into the conversation with the Assistant, where it can process the data the photo contains.

To show how this could work, Google’s Scott Huffman holds his camera up to a concert marquee for a Stone Foxes show and Google Assistant pulls up info on ticket sales. “Add this to my calendar,” he says — and it does.

The integration of Lens into Assistant can also help with translations.

Huffman demonstrates this by holding up his camera to a sign in Japanese, tapping the Lens icon and saying “What does this say?” Google Assistant then translates the text.

In addition, Pichai showed how Google’s algorithms could more generally clean up and enhance photos — like when you’re taking a picture of your child’s baseball game through a chain-link fence, Google could remove the fence from the photo automatically. Or if you took a photo in a low-light condition, Google could automatically enhance the photo to make it less pixelated and blurry.

The company didn’t announce when Google Lens would be available, only saying that it’s arriving “soon.”

WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately

By now I am sure you have already heard something about the WannaCry ransomware, and are wondering what's going on, who is doing this, and whether your computer is secure from this insanely fast-spreading threat that has already hacked nearly 200,000 Windows PCs over the weekend.

The only positive thing about this attack is that — you are here — as after reading this easy-to-understandable awareness article, you would be so cautious that you can save yourself from WannaCry, as well as other similar cyber attacks in the future.

Since this widely spread ransomware attack is neither the first nor the last one to hit users worldwide, prevention is always the key to protect against such malware threats.
In this article, we have provided some of the most important primary security tips that you should always follow and advised to share with everyone you care for.

What is Ransomware & Why WannaCry is More Dangerous?

For those unaware, Ransomware is a computer virus that usually spreads via spam emails and malicious download links; specially designed to lock up the files on a computer, until the victim pays the ransom demand, usually $300-$500 in Bitcoins.

But what makes WannaCry so unique and nasty is its ability to self-spread without even need to click any link or a file.

The WannaCry ransomware, also known as Wanna Decryptor, leverages a Windows SMB exploit, dubbed EternalBlue, that allows a remote hacker to hijack computers running on unpatched Microsoft Windows operating system.

Once infected, WannaCry also scans for other unpatched PCs connected to the same local network, as well as scans random hosts on the wider Internet, to spread itself quickly.

What Has Happened So Far

We have been covering this story since Friday when this malware was first emerged and hit several hospitals across the globe, eventually forcing them to shut down their entire IT systems over the weekend, hence rejecting patients appointments, and cancel operations.

Later this cyber attack brought down many organizations to their knees.

Instead of repeating same details again, read our previous articles dig deeper and know what has happened so far:

• Day 1: OutCry — WannaCry targeted over 90,000 computers in 99 countries.
• Day 2: The Patch Day — A security researcher successfully found a way to slow down the infection rate, and meanwhile, Microsoft releases emergency patch updates for unsupported versions of Windows.
• Day 3: New Variants Arrives — Just yesterday, some new variants of WannaCry, with and without a kill-switch, were detected in the wild would be difficult to stop for at least next few weeks.

Isn’t the Cyber Attack Over?

Absolutely not.

This is just beginning. As I reported yesterday, security researchers have detected some new versions of this ransomware, dubbed WannaCry 2.0, which couldn’t be stopped by the kill switch.

What's even worse is that the new WannaCry variant believed to be created by someone else, and not the hackers behind the first WannaCry ransomware.

It has been speculated that now other organized cybercriminal gangs, as well as script-kiddies can get motivated by this incident to create and spread similar malicious ransomware.

Who's Behind WannaCry & Why Would Someone Do This?

While it's still not known who is behind WannaCry, such large-scale cyber attacks are often propagated by nation states, but this ongoing attack does not bear any link to foreign governments.

"The recent attack is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits," said Europol, Europe's police agency.

Why are they hijacking hundreds of thousands of computers around the globe? Simple — to extort money by blackmailing infected users.

By looking at the infection rate, it seems like the criminals responsible for this absurd attack would have made lots and lots of dollars so far, but surprisingly they have made relatively little in the way of profits, according to @actual_ransom, a Twitter account that’s tweeting details of every single transaction.

At the time of writing, the WannaCry attackers have received 171 payments totaling 27.96968763 BTC ($47,510.71 USD).

How to Protect Yourself from WannaCry Ransomware?

Here are some simple tips you should always follow because most computer viruses make their ways into your systems due to lack of simple security practices:

1. Always Install Security Updates

If you are using any version of Windows, except Windows 10, with SMB protocol enabled, make sure your computer should always receive updates automatically from the Microsoft, and it’s up-to-date always.

2. Patch SMB Vulnerability

Since WannaCry has been exploiting a critical SMB remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2017-0148) for which Microsoft has already released a patch (MS17-010) in the month of March, you are advised to ensure your system has installed those patches.

Moreover, Microsoft has been very generous to its users in this difficult time that the company has even released the SMB patches (download from here) for its unsupported versions of Windows as well, including Windows XP, Vista, 8, Server 2003 and 2008.

Note: If you are using Windows 10 Creators Update (1703), you are not vulnerable to SMB vulnerability.

3. Disable SMB

Even if you have installed the patches, you are advised to disable Server Message Block version 1 (SMBv1) protocol, which is enabled by default on Windows, to prevent against WannaCry ransomware attacks.

Here's the list of simple steps you can follow to disable SMBv1:

1. Go to Windows' Control Panel and open 'Programs.'
2. Open 'Features' under Programs and click 'Turn Windows Features on and off.'
3. Now, scroll down to find 'SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support' and uncheck it.
4. Then click OK, close the control Panel and restart the computer.

4. Enable Firewall & Block SMB Ports

Always keep your firewall enabled, and if you need to keep SMBv1 enabled, then just modify your firewall configurations to block access to SMB ports over the Internet. The protocol operates on TCP ports 137, 139, and 445, and over UDP ports 137 and 138.

5. Use an Antivirus Program

An evergreen solution to prevent against most threats is to use a good antivirus software from a reputable vendor and always keep it up-to-date.

Almost all antivirus vendors have already added detection capability to block WannaCry, as well as to prevent the secret installations from malicious applications in the background.

6. Be Suspicious of Emails, Websites, and Apps

Unlike WannaCry, most ransomware spread through phishing emails, malicious adverts on websites, and third-party apps and programs.

So, you should always exercise caution when opening uninvited documents sent over an email and clicking on links inside those documents unless verifying the source to safeguard against such ransomware infection.

Also, never download any app from third-party sources, and read reviews even before installing apps from official stores.

7. Regular Backup your Files:

To always have a tight grip on all your important documents and files, keep a good backup routine in place that makes their copies to an external storage device which is not always connected to your computer.

That way, if any ransomware infects you, it can not encrypt your backups.

8. Keep Your Knowledge Up-to-Date

There's not a single day that goes without any report on cyber attacks and vulnerabilities in popular software and services, such as Android, iOS, Windows, Linux and Mac Computers as well.

So, it’s high time for users of any domain to follow day-to-day happening of the cyber world, which would not only help them to keep their knowledge up-to-date, but also prevent against even sophisticated cyber attacks.

What to do if WannaCry infects you?

Well, nothing.

If WannaCry ransomware has infected you, you can’t decrypt your files until you pay a ransom money to the hackers and get a secret key to unlock your file.

Never Pay the Ransom:

It’s up to the affected organizations and individuals to decide whether or not to pay the ransom, depending upon the importance of their files locked by the ransomware.

But before making any final decision, just keep in mind: there's no guarantee that even after paying the ransom, you would regain control of your files.

Moreover, paying ransom also encourages cyber criminals to come up with similar threats and extort money from the larger audience.

So, sure shot advice to all users is — Don't Pay the Ransom.

Who is responsible for WannaCry Attack?

— Is it Microsoft who created an operating system with so many vulnerabilities?

— Or is it the NSA, the intelligence agency of the United States, who found this critical SMB vulnerability and indirectly, facilitates WannaCry like attacks by not disclosing it to Microsoft?

— Or is it the Shadow Brokers, the hacking group, who managed to hack the NSA servers, but instead of reporting it to Microsoft, they decided to dump hacking tools and zero-day exploits in public?

— Or is it the Windows users themselves, who did not install the patches on their systems or are still using an unsupported version of Windows?

I do not know who can be blamed for this attack, but according to me, all of them shares equal responsibility.

Microsoft Blames NSA/CIA for WannaCry Cyber Attack

Microsoft has hit out at the US government for facilitating cyber attacks, like WannaCry, by not disclosing the software vulnerabilities to the respective vendors and holding them for their benefits, like global cyber espionage.

In a blog post on Sunday, Microsoft President Brad Smith condemned the US intelligence agencies’ unethical practices, saying that the "widespread damage" caused by WannaCry happened due to the NSA, CIA and other intelligence agencies for holding zero-days and allowing them to be stolen by hackers.

"This is an emerging pattern in 2017. We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world," Smith said.

This statement also publicly confirms that the hacking tools and exploits leaked by the Shadow Brokers belong to Equation Group, an elite group of hackers from NSA.

"Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage," Smith wrote.

You Should Thank These Experts

When the outbreak of WannaCry ransomware started on Friday night, It had already infected at least 30,000 computers worldwide, and at that moment nobody had an idea what’s happening and how the ransomware can spread itself like a worm so quickly.

Since then, in last three days, some cybersecurity experts and companies are continuously working hard, day and night, to analyze malware samples to find every possible way to stop this massive attack.

I have mentioned some of them, who should be thanked for saving millions of computers from getting hacked:

• MalwareTech — very skilled 22-years-old malware hunter who first discovered that here’s a kill-switch, which if used could stop ongoing ransomware attack.
• Matthieu Suiche — security researcher who discovered the second kill-switch domain in a WannaCry variant and prevent nearly 10,000 computers from getting hacked.
• Costin Raiu — security researcher from Kaspersky Lab, who first found out that there are more WannaCry variants in the wild, created by different hacking groups, with no kill-switch ability.

Thank you. Stay tuned.