UNAIR NEWS – Global community is annoyed with the dangerous cyberattack by WannaCry, a ransomware virus. The cyberattack of WannaCry encrypts files of users with Windows operation system so they cannot be accessed or opened.
“The moment is used by the hackers to attack majority of Windows users who do not set autoupdate for their operation system,” said the lecturer of Information System Program, Indra Kharisma Raharjana, M.T.
The lecturer of Faculty of Science and Technology Universitas Airlangga believed that the virus is a modification tool developed by National Security Agency for intelligent operation in the cyber world.
Unfortunately, the source code of this hacking and some other cyberattacks got into the hands of the hackers and used for bad things.
The virus first attacked the computer like any other viruses in general, through suspicious pages, email attachment, macro setting for Word and Excel file formats, and other means of hacking. When the virus is activated, it accesses file sharing in the local area network or WiFi.
“So, if there is a computer infected in the network, the virus will spread to other computers in the same network,” said the lecturer of Software Engineering.
Indra believed that internet users, individually or in group, should improve their knowledge on cybersecurity. He said that Indonesian internet users, personal or corporation, are not ready for cyberattacks, by viruses or hacking.
Few weeks ago, one of the telecommunication providers in Indonesia was also hacked. The hacker changed the appearance of the page.
“With these two ‘tragedies’, Indonesian organizations should be more aware on the importance of cyber security,” he said.
Hopefully, it is managed well periodically and comprehensively, not only because of virus threats but also to secure the information of the organization. Therefore, preventive steps are needed in response to these phenomena.
“Update your OS periodically, update your antivirus periodically. Have healthy internet life. Beware of internet phishing, private data leak. Be careful as well when you download file. Make sure the file is safe and not suspicious,” said Indra.
Author: Helmy Rafsanjani
Editor: Defrina Sukma S
