New ransomware called Bad Rabbit is taking over computers across Europe. It’s locking users out of their machines and demanding money from them, but security experts are warning people not to pay up. It’s currently unclear if infected computers can be fully restored, but there are ways to protect yourself from the cyber attack.
The criminals behind Bad Rabbit are tricking people into infecting themselves, by disguising the malware as an Adobe Flash installer and planting it on legitimate websites that have been compromised. According to Kaspersky Lab, all of these are news or media sites. Unsuspecting targets are downloading and installing the malicious software, which proceeds to encrypt all of their files, making them impossible to access.
- It’s being killed off in 2020, but users can protect themselves by disabling it altogether and ignoring installer prompts.
- Amit Serper, a security researcher at Cybereason, claims to have found a vaccine for the attack, which should completely prevent Bad Rabbit from infecting your computer.
- Bad Rabbit is demanding 0.05 Bitcoin (£220) from victims – a fee that looks set to rise – in exchange for the restoration of their computers.
However, security experts always advise people against paying the ransom. This is because it encourages more attacks, and there’s no guarantee the attackers will actually honour their word and remove the malware from your device. Kaspersky Lab says it has found almost 200 targets so far, most of whom are located in Russia.However, people in Ukraine, Turkey and Germany have also been affected.
According to the company, the majority of victims are located in Russia, and the ransomware appears to have infected devices through the hacked websites of Russian media organisations.
“Based on our investigation, this is a targeted attack against corporate networks, using methods similar to those used in the ExPetr attack,” Kaspersky Lab has said. “However, we cannot confirm it is related to ExPetr.”The cyber criminals behind Bad Rabbit are locking computers down and demanding 0.05 Bitcoin (£220) from victims, in exchange for the restoration of their devices.
However, security experts always advise people against paying the ransom. This is because it encourages more attacks, and there’s no guarantee the attackers will actually honour their word and remove the malware from your device. According to the Bad Rabbit ransom screen, the fee will rise in the near future.
Ukraine’s cyber police chief has told Reuters that the country was “barely affected”.In May, the “WannaCry” ransomware attack forced hospitals, factories and businesses around the world to shut down because they could not access critical computer systems. Interfax and Fontanka in Russia have both been hit by a cyber attack, as have Odessa Airport and the Kiev Metro in Ukraine.
Potter immediately wrote a story about a “fierce bad rabbit; look at his savage whiskers and his claws … who nastily steals a carrot from a nice gentle rabbit”. The two rabbits fight and the gentle one runs away and hides in a hole. But a man with a gun comes along, sees the fierce rabbit sitting on a bench and shoots him. When the man approaches the bench, all that are left are the carrot and a little white tail. The gentle rabbit peeps out of her hole and sees the naughty one running past, minus his tail.
The manuscript, which consists of a series of watercolours mounted on linen, was given to Louie Warne on her sixth birthday and has been with the Warne family ever since.The Story of the Fierce Bad Rabbit was written specially for the daughter of Potter’s publisher, Harold Warne. The little girl had complained that Peter Rabbit was too well behaved – she wanted to read about a really naughty rabbit.
Mr Warne liked the story so much that he asked Potter to produce another version, to print from. The printed edition came folded up like a concertina, in a special wallet. Shops refused to stock it because it was hard to refold, and it was eventually reprinted in orthodox book form. The Story of Miss Moppet was also printed in the unusual format, but the original of that has been lost.
Catherine Porter, of Sotheby’s books department, said it was exceptionally rare for a major Potter manuscript to come on to the market, as most were owned by the National Trust, the Frederick Warne archive or museums. The last major Potter item to be sold at Sotheby’s was an illustrated letter of Jeremy Fisher, which fetched pounds 130,000.
