25 July 2019

Synology urges all users to take immediate action to protect data from ransomware attack



TAIPEI, Taiwan - July 23, 2019 Synology recently found that several users were under a ransomware attack, where admins' credentials were stolen by brute-force login attacks, and their data was encrypted as a result. We investigated and found that the causes of these attacks were due to dictionary attacks instead of specific system vulnerabilities. This large-scale attack was targeted at various NAS models from different vendors; therefore we strongly recommend users check network and account settings to protect data from ransomware.

"We believe this is an organized attack. After an intensive investigation into this matter, we found that the attacker used botnet addresses to hide the real source IP," said Ken Lee, Manager of Security Incident Response Team at Synology Inc. "After collecting admin account passwords with brute-force attacks, the attack was launched on July 19 and caught users off guard. We therefore informed TWCERT/CC and CERT/CC immediately of this matter in hopes of accelerating the collaborative efforts to resolve this incident."

Since this attack is not related to system security vulnerabilities, it is recommended that Synology users utilize built-in network and account management settings to enhance system security level, preventing malicious attacks from the Internet.

"We urge all Synology users to take immediate action to protect their NAS from the ransomware attack," said Hewitt Lee, Director of Product Management at Synology Inc. "Users' data security is always our priority. For those who are not using Synology NAS, we still recommend you take corresponding actions to protect your precious data."

Synology are a great company with fantastic NAS devices. However, any piece of IT is only as secure as it's weakest link. Use a trivial password & expect to lose control of your device and data! ALWAYS use complex passwords & never reuse passwords!


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