Are approximately one million PCs with Windwos 7 and Windows Server 2008 at risk of a hacker attack due to a flaw recently discovered by Check Point, an Israeli company expert in cybersecurity, and called “BlueKeep“. The company explains that computers affected by this vulnerability can become infected with ransomware and cryptomining viruses. That is, those viruses that block our data by encrypting it, to then ask us for a ransom, and those that install in the background and use the power of our PC to mint cryptocurrencies on behalf of hackers.
According to Check Point, though, at the moment no hacker has exploited BlueKeep but, as Maya Horowitz, Threat Intelligence and Research Director at Check Point explains, “While there have not yet been any attacks that exploit it, several proofs of public exploit feasibility have been developed. We agree with Microsoft and other cyber-security observers that BlueKeep could be used to launch cyber-attacks similar to the massive 2017 WannaCry and NotPetya campaigns ”.
How BlueKeep works
Again, like many other Windows vulnerabilities discovered in the past such as SamSam and Dharma, BlueKeep is a flaw that depends on the RDP service (Microsoft Remote Desktop) which can be used to open a port on our devices. From this port, then, a hacker can let in a Trojan or other malware. As Horowitz explains: “A single computer with this anomaly can be used to infect an entire network. So any computers affected with Internet access can infect other vulnerable devices around the world, allowing the attack to spread exponentially, at an unstoppable rate. "
How to defend yourself from BlueKeep
CheckPoint, like many cybersecurity companies, works closely with Microsoft and makes known the vulnerabilities discovered only after Microsoft released the security patches that closes the open flaw. For defend yourself from BlueKeepTherefore, it is essential to download and install the patch for the Windows system installed on your computer. Furthermore, it is always a good idea to protect your devices and networks with robust security suites and also keep the virus definitions of such software up to date. In the case of BlueKeep, in fact, a widespread infection that affects all the others can start from a single PC connected to the network.
BlueKeep, the Windows flaw that puts a million PCs at risk
