Posted on 05/19/2017 2:12:39 PM PDT by Red Badger
French researchers have found a way to save Windows files encrypted by the WannaCry virus, racing against a deadline as the ransomware threatens to start locking up victims' computers first infected a week ago.
WannaCry, which started to sweep round the globe last Friday and has infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations, threatens to lock out victims who have not paid a sum of $300 to $600 (£230 to £460) within one week of infection.
A loose-knit team of security researchers scattered across the globe have revealed they have collaborated to develop a workaround to unlock the encryption key for files hit in the global attack, which several independent security researchers have confirmed.
But the researchers said their solution would only work in certain conditions, namely if computers had not been rebooted since becoming infected and if victims applied the fix before WannaCry carried out its threat to lock their files permanently.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Highly effective windows “back-doors” and worms, collected and developed by the NSA and US Government, somehow stolen/released to hackers who are now using them for mayhem.
Any investigations going on how THAT happened??
Nope, didn’t think so.
This is way cool.
If your computer gets locked up due to this ransomware,
you can just download this software and repair it ...
Oh.
Wait.
Never mind.
It appears there solution gives you a couple minutes to react; not much help.
With a white flag?
I got hit with a malware virus once. I rebooted the computer and it was gone.
Trend Micro 11.1 says it has protection from Wanna Cry. Earlier versions need an update available from their website.
Free to paid versions. If you own it, you’ve been notified.
If you are updated to Windows 10 and use Microsoft Defender, they did the update and patch in March.
Defender is the best. HP techs get all the computer security they want for free from any vendor. The HP techs all use Defender, none better.
The reason this malware exploited so many computers, particularly foreign computers is that nearly all of them are using a bootleg copy of Windows that they don’t register and then don’t get free security updates.
The something for nothing crowd.... OK, what did your piracy do for you now?
I have no sympathy, anyone that got infected largely deserved it because they are not keeping up to date, are stealing software, or are too cheap to buy an automatically updated security software.
I wonder if UNIX/LINUX based computers are vulnerable?...................
Linux wasn’t affected. They don’t get a lot of bugs, not enough users to make any money exploiting.
Try running Windows in a virtual machine with Virtualbox. That way the VM gets a bug, your data is unaffected.
For me, Windows 10, fully licensed and back up your data, you will be safe.
Linux is not supported by Microsoft, they hate it because it is so powerful, and there are very few apps.
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