“While the spread of the present ‘WannaCry’ ransomware attack has slowed due to accidental remedy by a UK-based cyber analyst, concern remains that such attacks could be launched in a much larger scale in the near future as the tools for embarking on ransomware attacks are readily available on the dark web,” says Chakradhar Kommera, co-founder and CEO of Unik, a Hyderabad-based cyber security and threat intelligence company.
It remains to be seen how the WannaCry malware spread so fast across so many organisations worldwide, which highlights the danger of the open communication systems the world over.
According to Unik, the ‘kill switch’ built into WannaCry accidentally helped halt the spread of the ransomware. However, ‘kill switches’ may not necessarily be built into future ransomware attacks, and their impact could be more devastating if the world is unprepared.
