“Happy New Year” named ransomware causing menace as we enter 2020

Happy New Year is an updated variant of WannaCash ransomware and operates by encrypting data and demanding a ransom for decryption.

The ransomware encrypts various files on the target computer and drops a text file containing the ransom note. The ransom note informs the users that their data has been compressed into password-protected archives, the passwords of which are unique and contain one hundred characters. The message guarantees that the victims will safely get their data after paying the demanded ransom.

The attackers have also proposed to decrypt up to two files for free, just to validate themselves. Attackers provide a time window of seven days to reply to the attack, failing which recovery of the data will be impossible. Attackers have also warned the users about trying to decrypt the files using third-party decryption tools as it might lead to permanent loss of data.

Recovery of such encrypted files is only possible from a backup created before the attack at a separate storage location. NPAV recommends keeping multiple data backups and using proper ransomware protection in order to stay safe from such ransomware attacks.

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