About WannaCry
WannaCry aka WannaCrypt aka WannaCrypt0r looks for different 176 file type and appends .WCRY to it's extension which in results to encryption of your files and data. Then it asks for ransom amount of $300 in form of Bitcoins. According to the attacks, the victims were asked to pay their amount in 3 days or else their amount will be doubled. After the 7 day period if you haven't paid then the Encrypted files will be deleted.
Impact
On May 12, 2017, a Cyberattack with the intentions of Ransom, Infected 250,000+ computer system over 150 countries with Russia, Ukraine and India at top. It is believed that the attack was a mistake done by NSA(USA) on 2016. The attack in results of leak of a security software ExternalBlue Exploit which was developed by US agency. Then on 2016 a hacking group named The ShadowBroker hacked the agencies systems and stole the very important and classified sofware. Later on the hacking group released the software on The Darkweb 3 months earlier.This attack uses this tool for encryption.
Symptoms
An alert windows with a text file named "@pleasereadme@.txt" which guides you to the payment procedures.
source-Norton
Prevention
Frankly speaking there are no resolve method till date. Many companies and research centers are trying their best to fix this issue.However some tools have been introduced by AVG inc. to solve the issue. Some decryption tools have been introduced online to solve the attack.
Here are some precautions for you too
- Always try to keep a backup of your file.Backing up your files and data can help in preventing loss of your important files.
- It is recommended that you should make an offline backup instead away from the system.
- Regularly cleanup your system by deleting temporary files, cache data, hash files.
- Keep an eye on the updates and update your system time to time.
Happy to Help!!!