WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history

These are the three Bitcoin addresses referenced in the article:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blockchain.info&#x2F;address&#x2F;115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNXj6LrLn" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blockchain.info&#x2F;address&#x2F;115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNX...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blockchain.info&#x2F;address&#x2F;12t9YDPgwueZ9NyMgw519p7AA8isjr6SMw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blockchain.info&#x2F;address&#x2F;12t9YDPgwueZ9NyMgw519p7AA8is...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blockchain.info&#x2F;address&#x2F;13AM4VW2dhxYgXeQepoHkHSQuy6NgaEb94" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blockchain.info&#x2F;address&#x2F;13AM4VW2dhxYgXeQepoHkHSQuy6N...</a><p>As of now, the three addresses have received a total of about 20 BTC, or about $36,000 at current exchange rates. The most typical transaction sends about $300 to the addresses. No funds have left the addresses yet.

I don&#x27;t quite understand how WannaCry became such a big deal. Ransomware is already old thing, SMB worms even older. WannaCry didn&#x27;t even use a 0day ffs, the patch for this was already published few months ago (and not particularly quietly I might add). There is very little novel about WannaCry as far as I can tell. Additionally W10 apparently was not vulnerable in the first place.<p>All this, and still WannaCry hit the main evening news, which at least around here is somewhat high bar. Not sure what to think about that.

One day someone is going to write a filesystem filter driver that does this and build in a much longer delay, which will allow the malware to spread for a lot longer before dumping the keys and demanding ransom.<p>The filter driver would ensure access to the files continues transparently even though the underlying data is encrypted.<p>Things will get much worse.

I don&#x27;t understand how a machine becomes infected, it is perhaps not very clear yet? this article explains receiving an email containing a link OR a PDF with a link to a .hta file ? what a strange sentence. Can one get infected without user interaction, or even with a passive client ?

I wish they hadn&#x27;t patched XP so we can collectively put that one to rest.

Does anyone have an estimate of how much money WannaCry has made in total?<p>Incentives matter, and if the ransomeware developers are actually getting paid a lot, they will continue exploiting these vulnerabilities. On the other hand, if it turns out people don&#x27;t actually bother paying despite being locked out of their computers, would the hackers even bother continuing this line of attack?

So big that MS has to release a patch for Windows XP!

In the meantime, what are doing the FBI, the NSA, and other agencies that exist precisely to avoid that?

Everyone talks about how people get infected but is there a guide around somewhere about how do I protect my computer from such attacks? I install all updates and I have an antivirus program but I don&#x27;t know what else can I do.

Could someone explain how this spreads and then executes itself on other machines? Does it require user interaction?

yes, &#x27;WannaCry Ransomeware Attack&#x27; is the largest ransom in history. However, it&#x27;s the time to increase windows security and updates. So that anyone can&#x27;t do this in future <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wuinstall.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wuinstall.com&#x2F;</a>

Can it attack Linux desktops?

does this affect the google drive sync folder on windows machines?