Two days ago, 48 NHS hospitals across England were hit by a cyber attack demanding a ransom in exchange for access to computers.
Though the large scale attack shocked and scared millions of people, a mysterious and humble 22-year-old blogger/surfer was able to put a stop to the ambush, according to the Daily Mail.
Fascinatingly, it only took the man, known as Malware Tech, a matter of hours before his self-taught I.T. skills had identified the critical software weakness which had led to thousands of computers being utterly crippled.
TwitterAnd best of all – Malware Tech saved the day ‘by accident’.
I will confess that I was unaware registering the domain would stop the malware until after i registered it, so initially it was accidental.
— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) May 13, 2017
Essentially, the unnamed hero put an end to the attack when he realised the computer used by the hackers included a reference to a website nobody owned.
Malware Tech bought the website domain for £8 and aimed it towards a ‘sinkhole server’ in Los Angeles.
However it isn’t all good news as Malware Tech added that it is highly likely the hackers could do it again.
So long as the domain isn't revoked, this particular strain will no longer cause harm, but patch your systems ASAP as they will try again.
— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) May 13, 2017
He told the Mail:
Saying I’ve saved lives is a bit drastic, but I’ve definitely saved a few people a pretty penny.
Our sinkholing [redirecting traffic to a different website] only stops this sample and there is nothing stopping them removing the domain check and trying again, so it’s incredibly important that any unpatched systems are patched as quickly as possible.
We’ve actually been getting attacks today – we don’t think it’s the actual group who were spreading the malware but another group is trying to attack us so the infections resume.
The world needs more guys like Malware Tech. Take a bow sir.
