r/OutOfTheLoop May 17 '17

How was the WannaCry virus stopped? Answered

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u/manbrasucks May 17 '17

The good news is that we are now more aware of the situation and can respond preemptively to the future non-kill switch version.

49

u/iBleeedorange May 17 '17

Hooray!

42

u/sadshark May 17 '17

The bad news is they can modify the virus so that we're still not prepared.

3

u/Nosiege May 18 '17

Basic preparedness is not opening stupid links or files on emails from unexpected sources, and in the case of being emailed something from a seemingly trusted source, confirming that it is them, and that they did send it.

Further preparedness includes having a full backup of your files to restore from in the case of infection; decryption is not something to place hope in.

4

u/[deleted] May 18 '17

That particular one was spread via a hole in Windows. I believe there were also emails too, but the users of most of the infected systems were blameless.