Sixteen hospitals and clinics were forced to cancel appointments and divert ambulances in England last week as a result of a massive ransomware attack, according to reports.
The malware believed to be behind the cyberattack appears to exploit a vulnerability in Windows that Microsoft patched nearly two months ago, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Security experts say that shows the importance of staying up to date with vital software security patches.
However, software patching is a problem amongst most organizations, because corporate procedures often demand the patches require testing before being deployed to hundreds or thousands of devices.
Too many companies wait too long to implement software updates, which should be executed as soon as they become available, according to experts.
Today’s ransomware is fully automatic and moving so fast now that human security teams can’t keep up, the WSJ reports.
“The recognition is that most organizations are slow to patch,” Greg Young, an analyst with researcher Gartner told the WSJ. “Almost all attacks go after known vulnerabilities because of this delay.”
Read more in the Wall Street Journal.
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