Marcus Hutchins says hackers are attempting to overwhelm ‘kill switch’ that halted ransomware attack on NHS and global companies
The “accidental hero” who registered a web address that became the so-called kill switch for WannaCry has said hackers are trying to overwhelm the site to resurrect the ransomware that plagued the NHS and companies around the world.
The web address acts as a beacon for the malware, which if contactable tells WannaCry to cease and desist. In registering the domain name, a self-trained 22-year-old security expert from south-west England called Marcus Hutchins halted the spread of WannaCry by activating its kill switch.
ScriptKiddie: “Hahaha, your site is offline #TangoDown”
Me: *Clicks Enable Caching*
Me: *Goes back to browsing funny cat pics*— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) 22 maggio 2017
#WannaCry infection distribution by the Windows version. Worst hit – Windows 7 x64. The Windows XP count is insignificant. pic.twitter.com/5GhORWPQij
— Costin Raiu (@craiu) 19 maggio 2017
