On May 12, an extremely dangerous ransomware named WannaCry (also known as WanaCrypt0r, WCry 2.0 и WannaCrypt) began to infect computers across the world. In just a few days, the number of infected PCs was several hundred thousands. in 90+ countries. End users, commercial organizations, and government agencies in many countries were attacked. Among the victims there were telecommunication providers in Spain, hospitals in the UK, China police and others. Initial analysis of the ransomware appears to show it spreading via MS17-010, a critical SMB vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows operating system. Ransomware was freely distributed to computers that didn’t have an update to close this gap. 

 

One of the main ways to repel such attacks — is layered approach to security that is implemented in WatchGuard Total Security:

For full protection from WannaCry and similar ransomware, IT administrators should install the latest Windows security updates to resolve the MS127-010 vulnerability. Additionally, WatchGuard customers should enable Gateway AntiVirus, APT Blocker, and IPS to stop the ransomware at their network perimeter.