This article is about the ransomware epidemic called "WannaCry" that's going on around the globe right now. Over 99 counties are affected right now, and it is growing rapidly. This could be one of the biggest computer virus outbreaks that has happened in a very long time.
What is a Ransomware?
According to Wikipedia, Ransomware is a type of malicious software that carries out the cryptoviral extortion attack from cryptovirology that blocks access to data until a ransom is paid and displays a message requesting payment to unlock it. Simple ransomware may lock the system in a way which is not difficult for a knowledgeable person to reverse. More advanced malware encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them.The ransomware may also encrypt the computer's Master File Table (MFT) or the entire hard drive. Thus, ransomware is a denial-of-access attack that prevents computer users from accessing files since it is intractable to decrypt the files without the decryption key. Ransomware attacks are typically carried out using a Trojan that has a payload disguised as a legitimate file.
Basically it is a type of virus that once it infects your computer, it encrypts all of your files on your computer and sends the key to the attackers and then erases locally from the machine so that no way for you to obtain the key to unlock those files unless you pay the ransom.
What WannaCry do to your computer?
Now the people that create these viruses usually require the ransom to be paid through a bitcoin wallet because it's untraceable and they have access to the currency without any kind of federal agency being able to track them down.
The sad thing about thise is once your computer is infected with this virus, you are done, you are not getting your files unfortunately unless you pay the ransom and even then there is a slim chance you are actually get the key from them to decrypt your files because most of the time they just take the money and don't even bother wasting time to email the key, because why would they? they already have your money and there's no way for you to have you to find them, so why would they exhaust any more resource they could be using to write more viruses to extort more money from people.
A bunch of analysts say that this is connected to the massive spy tool leaked from the U.S NSA which is the National Security Agency. It just happened a couple of weeks ago.
How this gets on to your computer ?
Usually this ransomware gets on to your computer through a infected e-mail attachment or the all too common Trojan Horse attack. And then It will start to lock your computer or data by usually encrypting the data of your computer. Then ask a ransom of $300 to give you the key to decrypt your files. And you should pay this amount in 3 days. And if you don't pay up in 3 days they increase the ransom up to $600. Currently this virus attack only Windows users. But if you are a Mac or Linux user, you are safe at the moment. If your Windows OS is updated or Settings are updated properly you have a chance to be safe from this attack.
How you can save your computer?
To prevent this you can do the following things,
- Don't click on any links that you find suspicious even of you know the sender.
- Get yourself an offline backup which means get yourself a hard drive and save all your data that are very important to you, in to that hard drive.
- There are patches from Microsoft called Security Bulletin MS 1701 or and some for unsupported versions like Windows XP, Vista Server 2008 .
- Update your Windows and Security tools.
- Don't pay the ransom, because it encourages them to do even more damage again.
- Immediately go offline and unplug your device.
- Even if your data is encrypted save them. Because they are new tools that will come that you can use to recover your data again.
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