Two weeks after the first infections of WannaCry, the Ransomware that took the world by storm, we can finally take a deep breath and try to analyze the damage this campaign has done. One element worth noting is that while it may have disrupted lots of businesses, WannaCry failed to generate equivalent income for its creators. The bitcoin wallets created to collect ransoms contains a bit more than $100,000, an amount that pales in comparison with other, less famous ransomware campaigns of the past. This is the result of a variety of mistakes in the malware, like for example the famous kill-switch, an easy to control check that effectively shut down the malware.
Unfortunately, the ransomware, even if it was not successful in terms of monetization, still impacted a large number of companies and individuals that were not ready for something of these proportions. In addition, WannaCry has breathed new life into the world of ransomware, attracting more people than ever to this kind of illegal activity. In fact, we have seen a number of new Ransomware variants emerge in the last week. While some of them were copycats, others were enhanced versions of WannaCry, using not just one, but in some cases up to 7 different NSA exploits.
Now more than ever, its vital for you to always keep a backup of your work and be up-to-date with all the security patches released.