On its three-year anniversary, let’s remember the worst cyberattack in history so it never happens again
Exactly three years ago, a scourge known as WannaCry ransomware began its global spread. For Avast researchers, May 12, 2017 started like a typical Friday until Avast Antivirus blocked 2,000 users from ransomware attacks at 8am. Within the next hour, another 6,000 Avast users were blocked from the same kind of ransomware. The next hour, saw another 10,000. Avast users were safe from the WannaCry attack, as were those running an updated version of Windows, but many people around the globe suffered damage that day. By the time Saturday morning dawned, WannaCry had infected over 230,000 Windows PCs across 150 countries, causing an estimated $4 billion in losses.
WannaCry wreaked massive havoc like a cyberweapon, and there’s a reason for that – because it was actually developed as a cyberweapon! At least, the EternalBlue exploit was. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) created it, and a hacking group called Shadow Brokers leaked it to the world. WannaCry developers worked the EternalBlue attack into their ransomware, and a menace was born. Microsoft had actually released a patch that fixed the flaw two months before WannaCry struck, so users who had updated or who were protected by any antivirus were safe. All others were not.
Because it was programmed to be an unstoppable worm, the virus spread like wildfire, initially targeting victims in Russia and Asia, but soon spreading around the world. It encrypted files and demanded $300 in bitcoin within 3 days from the users under threat that the files would be deleted otherwise. Some people paid and some people didn’t, but it’s unclear if anyone ..
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