Wanna Cry is a computer virus that went all around the world in May 2017. It affected users in at least 150 different countries on the planet. Many enterprises and businesses were affected, although individual users could also be touched by it.
This virus is a ransomware, a category used to identify a kind of malware that crypts all your files and stop you from doing anything at all unless you pay a ransom. In the screenshot shown below, we see $300 (USD) are asked per computer infected.
“Shadow Brokers” a hackers group has claimed responsibility over Wanna Cry. They were already known around the world since last year, because of their hacked NSA tools they were offering for sale.
The French agency for IT security, (ANSSI – Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information) offers a set of tips to follow in case of infection:
- immediately unplug any infected computers from the network; the goal here is to stop the spreading and encrypting of further files, and/or the destruction of shared files and folders.
- warn your IT security specialist at once;
- back-up the most important files in external storage devices. Those files might be altered or infected already, so you must treat them with extreme care. Also, make sure to protect old backups from being replaced with new backups.
- do not pay the ransom under any circumstances; such payment will not represent a real warranty that your files will be decrypted, plus you could jeopardize your credit card number.
As for us, we provide you with free tools to remove Wanna Cry.
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