British expert, 22, hailed a hero for halting spread of virus worldwide
A BRITISH cyber expert shouted “Eureka!” and jumped around in excitement after accidentally activating a “kill switch” that halted the spread of the global cyber attack.
The anonymous 22-year-old was hailed a hero and joked that he could add “accidentally stopped an international cyber attack” to his CV.
He learnt that on infecting a new computer, the virus contacted a web address and started taking files hostage only if it found the address unreachable.
If it could connect, it terminated itself – a function likely to have been installed as a failsafe mechanism.
By purchasing and redirecting that web domain for less than £10, the expert, who tweets as @MalwareTechBlog, was able to stop the virus spreading .
He posted online: “You probably can’t picture a grown man jumping around with the excitement of having just been ransomwared, but this was me.”
He told The Sunday Telegraph he shouted “Eureka!”
Darien Huss, 28, a collaborator of his from US cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, called him “a hero”.
Mr Huss warned that a copycat attack should be expected “very soon” because of the ease of replicating it. He speculated that the incident was the work of amateurs.
He said: “If they were still intent on maximum profit, they would or could have re-released without the kill switch or with one they could control.”
He added: “This should be a wakeup call: governments and organisations, especially those responsible with helping people, should take patching and updates very seriously.”
None of the experts working to stop the virus on Friday imagined that registering the domain would halt its spread.
News of the success of the kill switch was delayed while researchers checked the findings, assuming any such largescale attack would have more sophisticated programming.