Major news outlets such are sounding the alarm on June 27, 2017 about a new Ransomware virus – “Petya” that is affecting Windows systems worldwide.
What is “Petya” ?
Petya is an especially dangerous type of ransomware that propagates itself via two separate vulnerabilities in Microsoft products.
Vulnerability 1: Is in Microsoft Office and the way it handles RTF documents.
Vulnerability 2: Is in Microsoft’s file-sharing protocol – SMBv1, which is detailed in Microsoft security bulletin MS17-010 .
“Petya” is especially dangerous because it requires no action on the part of a user to infect a Windows system. This Ransomware can infect your system through the network. This is why it has spread globally so quickly.
Once the “Petya” ransomware has infected your system, it encrypts all of your files and displays, on screen, instructions on how you can pay the ransom and regain access to your files.
Here is a screenshot courtesy of Wordfence .
What You Need To Do :
At around 3:20 PST 06/27/17, security experts discovered a “vaccine” against this variant of ransomware, and it is quite simple.
Just create a file called perfc in the C:\Windows folder and mark it read only.
The presence of this file will prevent the encryption code of the ransomware from running.
If you need instructions on how to create the read-only file, they can be found here (about halfway down the page).
Share this information with your friends who are running Windows and help them stay safe.