{"id":732,"date":"2017-05-16T00:05:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T08:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nortonsecurityonline.com\/faq\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=732"},"modified":"2025-05-22T14:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T22:15:23","slug":"ransomware-wannacry","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.antivirusaz.com\/faq\/art\/ransomware-wannacry\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware \u2013 WannaCry, WannaCrypt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, May 12, 2017,\u00a0 and over the following weekend, a ransomware attack hit a number of global companies and domestic institutions with malicious software known as WannaCry, or WannaCrypt.<\/p>\n<p>This ransomware\u00a0encrypts data files and asks users to pay ransom in bitcoins under the threat of deleting data if the ransom is not paid.<\/p>\n<p>The malware is known as WannaCry, WannaCrypt, WCRY, WanaCrypt0r, WeCry, WeCrypt0r, or Wanna Decryptor.<\/p>\n<p>It works in the way that it exploits Windows OS vulnerabilities discovered by the NSA and then stolen by a group of hackers calling themselves \u201cShadow Brokers\u201d. The versions of Windows operating systems affected are all except Windows 10.<\/p>\n<p>In order to protect against this malware, ensure your OS is up to date, and install security software like <a href=\"\/norton\/us.html\">Norton 360<\/a> or alike.<\/p>\n<p>More information is available on our about <a href=\"\/security-center\/virus-information\/wannacry-ransomware.html\">WannaCry Ransomware<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<p>More about this type of malware is described on our <a href=\"\/security-center\/ransomware.html\">Ransomware<\/a> description page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, May 12, 2017,\u00a0 and over the following weekend, a ransomware attack hit a number of global companies and domestic institutions with malicious software known as WannaCry, or WannaCrypt. This ransomware\u00a0encrypts data files and asks users to pay ransom in bitcoins under the threat of deleting data if the ransom is not paid. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[509],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-732","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-malware"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ransomware \u2013 WannaCry, WannaCrypt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.antivirusaz.com\/faq\/art\/ransomware-wannacry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ransomware \u2013 WannaCry, WannaCrypt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday, May 12, 2017,\u00a0 and over the following weekend, a ransomware attack hit a number of global companies and domestic institutions with malicious software known as WannaCry, or WannaCrypt. 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