22 year-old Brit cyber expert discovers how to defeat the ransom wear attacks/

Telegraph:
A British cyber expert has told how he jumped around in excitement after discovering a kill switch which halts the global spread of the malicious software currently infecting the NHS and organisations in more than 100 countries.

The 22-year-old researcher has been hailed as an 'accidental hero' online.

The anonymous blogger discovered that upon infecting a new computer, the virus contacts a remote web address and only starts taking files hostage if it finds that address unreachable.

But if it can connect, the WannaCry program terminates itself - a function likely installed by its creator as a failsafe in case the software became uncontrollable.

By discovering the web address was unregistered, and purchasing it for less than £10, the researcher who tweets from @MalwareTechBlog, was able to redirect 5,000 connections per seconds to a harmless “sinkhole” server.

In an update posted moments ago, he explained how at 6.30pm yesterday after experimentation, he learned that by showing infected computers the domain was now registered, the ransomware became inactive.
...
The US CIA should offer this guy a job.  They need someone who can actually defeat these attacks. He apparently could run the rabbit trails better than many other professional cyber experts.

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