This is a very serious Ransomware attack
 

The folks over at WordFence do an awesome job of protecting millions of blogs. They also are very assertive over warning people about problems in general. Today's bulletin is warning everyone that there is a huge attack going on with Windows operating systems that have not been recently updated. You could be opening yourself to ransomware popups if you have not updated since March 14th.

The news is even more grim if you use an outdated operating system that is no longer supported like Windows XP. Those users are being told to isolate themselves (remove from the net, don't use any shared networks) or shut down completely because your operating system has NOT been patched and you are extremely vulnerable.

More info.... WordFence's PSA

Stay safe out there... update your computers, stay with porn that you can rely on.

Love Wordfence. Really top notch company.

Malwarebytes also sent an e-mail pitching their premium service which luckily we have.

Locking emergency room computers? The perpetrators should really be shot dead.

At the same time, much of this could have been prevented simply up keeping the operating systems up to date. I would expect private citizens to be hit, but the UK's NHS? Really? The infection has spread to 99 countries now and growing.

From The Guardian's article this morning,

"In December it was reported that nearly all NHS trusts were using an obsolete version of Windows for which Microsoft had stopped providing security updates in April 2014. Data acquired by software firm Citrix under freedom of information laws suggested 90% of trusts were using Windows XP, then a 15-year-old system."

The Guardian may not be the most reliable news source, but this is scary. The NHS was pretty much immobilized by this attack. Makes you wonder sometimes.

|cleo|

It is actually spreading and morphing, pretty much as predicted. It's really a warning to people to think twice - keep your OS current, and don't randomly click on stuff in your email.