VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Sophos has released an in-depth investigative white paper on the SamSam ransomware attacks that first appeared in December 2015. Titled “SamSam: The (Almost) Six Million Dollar Ransomware”, this white paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of this unique ransomware attack by summarizing key findings about attacker’s tools, techniques, and protocols. SamSam is a thorough encryption tool, rendering not only work data files unusable but any program that is not essential to the operation of a Windows computer, most of which are not routinely backed up. SamSam’s attacking method unique as it is manual and as a result, attackers can employ countermeasures (if needed) to evade many security tools. If the process of encrypting data is interrupted, the malware is capable of comprehensively erasing all trace of itself immediately, hindering any investigation. Furthermore, recovery from the attack may require reimaging and/or reinstalling software as well as restoring backu...

In an attempt to make inroads into the Chinese market, which it had been unable to past several years, Google is reportedly launching a censored version of its search engine in the country. Code-named ‘Dragonfly’, the product has been secretly planned by the tech giant for almost a year. China has blocked Google's search engine, Gmail and YouTube since 2010, when federal regulators, often referred to as China's 'Great Firewall,' shut down more than 1.3 million websites. Development of the search engine sped up after Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with a top Chinese government official in December 2017, as revealed by sources. Several versions of an Android app, called 'Maotai' and 'Longfei' have been created by Programmers and engineers Google and presented to the Chinese government for review. The app would have to comply with China's rigid censorship laws, which would mean restricting access to content that government officials ...