A group of French researchers have discovered a brand new way using which, they can save computers affected by the WannaCry ransomware. The news comes as a relief as this will allow companies and personnel with vital data on affected computers to save them, without having to pay out the required ransom.
By now WannaCry needs no introduction. The ransomware works by locking down computers and demanding money from their owners. The ransomware works by using a loophole discovered by NSA and made public by the elusive Shadow Brokers. As soon as it enters your device (whether through downloads, or an e-mail attachment) it scrambles all the data on your system. And then, you must pay out sum of $300 to $600 within one week of infection to get back access.
The people behind WannaCry have already managed to infect over 300,000 computers in 150 nations and have extorted over $94,000 in ransom so far.
Meanwhile, a group of researchers spread across the world has been working with each other to develop alternative means to getting access to computers affected by the ransomware, without having to pay out the money required. However, before you start getting to happy, the workaround does not work in all situations. There are a special set of conditions that need to be fulfilled before your issue can be resolved.
Adrien Guinet, Matthieu Suiche, Benjamin Delpy, are among the people who have worked together to sort the issue out. The tool they have managed to develop is called wanakiwi, and is a freeware. The group is now sharing all the details of the hack with organizations the world over. The tool works with Windows 7, XP and 2003, that much has been confirmed. However, the developers believe that it could well also work with Windows 2008 and Vista — leaving out Windows 10, which is already protected by a patch pushed out by Microsoft in March.
The group has already been approached by banking, energy and some government intelligence agencies from Europe and India.
Speaking about the fix, Suiche said:
This is not a perfect solution. But this is so far the only workable solution to help enterprises to recover their files if they have been infected and have no back-ups.
