Wanna cry, a ransomware that wrecked havoc on a global scale has been successfully patched, for now. Almost one hundred countries were affected by this breach that apparently locks up desktops asking for a 600$ bitcoin payment which would then unlock itself after successful authentications. Unsurprisingly, macOS environment remained secure with all older generations of Microsoft Windows operating systems bearing maximum damage.
Initial reports indicated that WannaCry had swept through the entire European Union and across through parts of Asia. The outbreak resulted in the UK's National Healthcare System (NHS) being completely unresponsive with all hospitals even unable to generate x-rays of patients. Thanks to MalwareTech, the problem has been halted for a temporary period now as per reports from Wired.
Microsoft came out with a statement assuring that all users and corporations making use of their latest generation Windows 10 operating systems were safe from WannaCry. At least, those users who had given total access to the OS to update itself automatically have prevented a major security lapse. Further precautionary measures were also undertaken by releasing an update for the OS itself.
New reports indicate the hackers only managed to get hold of $92,000 in bitcoin. Converting the amount to real money can be a major problem since the transactions can be traced. Vox reports the outbreak of WannaCry has stopped spreading further since Friday. MalwareTech also mentioned that the design of the ransomware was poorly designed. To prevent further damage across countries, a simple domain registration helped him solve the problem temporarily.
Reverse-engineered samples revealed the programmers of the ransomware coded it in a certain way that a random URL would lead to a live web page. A $10 investment has helped solve millions of dollars in data losses. The National Security Agency (NSA) has been heavily criticized by Microsoft for failing to secure Windows vulnerabilities which led to the WannaCry outbreak.
