{"id":5902,"date":"2017-05-13T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T11:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/igotoffer.com\/blog\/?p=5902"},"modified":"2019-01-30T16:59:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T16:59:10","slug":"wanna-cry-virus-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/igotoffer.com\/blog\/wanna-cry-virus-stopped","title":{"rendered":"WannaCrypt Virus Stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"

WannaCrypt Virus Epidemic Stopped by Abracadabra<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The security expert @MalwareTechBlog stopped the WannaCrypt virus epidemy<\/a> simply by registering a non-readable domain name. He confessed, \u201c\u2026I was unaware registering the domain would stop the malware until after I registered it, so initially it was accidental\u201d.<\/p>\n

The expert discovered a very curious line while looking at the virus code, which stated that once a specific domain was registered and owned, the virus would be ordered to quit. The creaters of the virus never actually expected anyone to actually register the domain, since the name required was: iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com. Obviously, they just typed a slew of letters at random. But our hero did just that to see what would happen \u2013 he registered the domain and got thousands of requests from infested computers within minutes. Then, just like that, the virus stopped spreading from the infested machines!<\/p>\n

Hackers must have been very smug about their resourcefulness when creating the virus. You see, any program has a basic command that it must continue doing it\u2019s task until an assigned task is complete. It\u2019s called the condition command or if-then command. This command sets the conditions of some action. For instance, let\u2019s say you have to take all the toy bricks from one box and put them into another. What do you do? You look into the box #1 to see if there are any brick left. If you see any bricks remaining in the first box, you will pick them up and put it into the box #2. Once box #1 is empty, then there is no more work to be done and you are finished with your task. This is how a computer or virus works as well, it just looks like this: if brick > 1, then relocate it to the box #2, if brick = 0, then stop the task.<\/p>\n

WannaCrypt wrote their virus to continue its task of infecting hardware until a certain domain had been registered. It\u2019s clear that the writers didn\u2019t actually expect anyone to ever actually register an incomprehensible domain name. And then, oops! The domain iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com came into existence, and the virus did what it was programmed to do; it stopped.<\/p>\n

MalwareTechBlog stopped the epidemic by studying the virus\u2019 behavior and setting up a target sinkhole.
\nIt didn\u2019t take hours of typing in front of black displays with myriads of green lines running. Until the domain is revoked, the WannaCrypt is completely harmless! That\u2019s what I call Bruce Willis style of rescuing the world.<\/p>\n

There has been an animated world map developed to show people the scale of the cyber attack. Wannacry Ransomware Map<\/a> shows data which was collected via one of the infested domains the blog took control of. The attack began at one and the same time around the globe and Europe seems to suffer most. The USA is relatively okay, but we\u2019ll see, since the info is still being updated.<\/p>\n

What can you do to stay safe in the future? First, remember to update all the patches and updates Microsoft provides. Second, remember to update your antivirus software. Third, regularly back up critical files to the hard drives or other computer with NO internet access.<\/p>\n