Experts Crack Petya Ransomware, Enable Hard Drive Decryption For Free

Posted by msmash on Monday April 11, 2016 @07:49AM from the a-day-late-and-a-dollar-short? dept.

Reader itwbennett writes: Petya appeared on researchers' radar last month when criminals distributed it to companies through spam emails that masqueraded as job applications. It stood out from other file-encrypting ransomware programs because it overwrites a hard drive's master boot record (MBR), leaving infected computers unable to boot into the operating system. Now, security experts have devised a method that, while not exactly straightforward, allows users to recover data from computers infected with the ransomware without paying money to cyber criminals. Folks over at BleepingComputer have confirmed that the aforementioned technique works.

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Job applications? by barc0001 · 2016-04-11 08:00 · Score: 1, Funny

What the hell kind of idiots are sending ransomware to people looking for jobs? Can't get blood from a stone...
Refund policy? by safetyinnumbers · 2016-04-11 08:36 · Score: 5, Funny

I hope that they'll offer at least a partial refund to anyone who's paid in the last 30 days.