Mitigate Ransomware "WannaCry"

NOYB

They could also sell the killswitch to some places for more $$$

Yup, lots of possibilities.

What made me think of cyber warfare was a top 20 chart I saw with one particular nation affected way more than any other. Another thought on cyber warfare could be nation C trying to stoke animosity between nations A and B.

General public pawns will probably never know much of any of this. But it is fun to speculate.

Hmmm. They would only be able to sell the kill switch once. Then everyone would have it. Also, why two kill switches? Seems to me that may indicate targeting.

NOYB

The simple reason so many companies were hit by the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware

Daniel Howley
Technology Editor

Yahoo FinanceMay 16, 2017

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/simple-reason-many-companies-hit-wannacry-2-0-ransomware-192836300.html

Excuses, excuses. It's their job/responsibility to operate a secure environment. If they are unable or unwilling to allocate the necessary resources to accomplish that then it is their fault, and stupidity for taking the associated risk without being prepared to deal with the possible consequences.

zoro_2009

<interrup>Whats a killswitch ?</interrup>

jimp

@zoro_2009:

<interrup>Whats a killswitch ?</interrup>

It's a condition that, if met, causes a program to stop executing.

In this case, the malware checks to see if one of the domains is live (attempts an HTTP connection to it). If this succeeds, then it does not attempt to spread itself further.

So by making sure the malware can access these "killswitch" domains, you effectively stop it from infecting more machines, giving you more time to get your systems patched/configured/etc to properly prevent them from being exploited, and to clean up existing infections.

fredfox_uk

For a really good explanation of the killswitch take a read of this https://www.malwaretech.com/2017/05/how-to-accidentally-stop-a-global-cyber-attacks.html

zoro_2009

thanks

Mr. Jingles

@jimp:

It does not require any specific response, only that it can make an HTTP request to those domains.

[]
DO NOT BLOCK THESE DOMAINS, blocking solves nothing. It is not a C&C server, but a killswitch.

Dear Jim,

Could I ask why blocking the domain doesn't solve anything? In my humble view of the world, if it can't connect to it because it's blocked, it can't make a HTTP request?

Thank you :)

Derelict

How about you read jimp's post again.

mrgoogleip

I know some people that pay bitcoins for his information :'(

johnpoz

Exactly - pay attention to this part

" It is not a C&C server, but a killswitch."

This is why do not block the domain… But bring the domains online and let it make a http connection.