Meet the ‘accidental hero’ who saved the world from the ransomware cyber-attack
A cyber security researcher has reportedly discovered a ‘kill switch’ that can prevent the spread of the WannaCry ransomware, which is creating chaos worldwide.
The researcher, tweeting as @MalwareTechBlog stated that the discovery was accidental but, registering a domain name used by the malware stops it from spreading. According to reports, @MalwareTechBlog told AFP in a private message on Twitter, “Essentially they relied on a domain not being registered and by registering it, we stopped their malware spreading.” However, it has also been added that the crisis isn’t over, and the hackers can always change the code and try again.
Recently, a global cyber-attack leveraging hacking tools believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency infected tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries, disrupting Britain’s health system and global shipper FedEx. Cyber extortionists tricked victims into opening malicious malware attachments to spam emails that appeared to contain invoices, job offers, security warnings and other legitimate files.
The ransomware encrypted data on the computers, demanding payments of $300 to $600 to restore access. Security researchers said they observed some victims paying via the digital currency bitcoin, though they did not know what percent had given in …read more
