14 DAY TRIAL // WannaCry is the most dangerous ransomware out there, mostly because of its worm component which helps it spread through networks like wildfire. For a tool that's so successful in attacking hundreds of thousands of computers, the attackers have only managed to gather up just over $70,000.
The wallets linked to the code have received about 250 payments so far, amassing over $70,000. Considering the kind of sums these people could be spinning through cyber attacks, this seems to be quite a small payout.
What is noteworthy, however, is that during the weekend the sum was a mere $20,000. The rest of it gathered quickly starting on Monday when people returned to work to find their computers blocked.
The payment history for each wallet shows transactions range between 0.16 and 0.34 Bitcoin, which is the approximate equivalent of $300 and $600, respectively. The latter indicates that for some people the ransom had already doubled, as it promised it would if not paid immediately.
A lucky bug
Folks at Symantec Security Response say that tracking ransomware transactions wasn't supposed to be this easy. In fact, if not for a bug in the code, an individual bitcoin wallet was supposed to be created for each victim. That would have made the task of calculating how much the hackers made impossible.
The general advise is to not pay the ransom if your device gets infected. Of course, that may or may not be possible, depending on how much you depend on those files that suddenly got encrypted. The ransom isn't an extremely large sum, but it's not small either; generally speaking, it falls in line with what other ransomware demand as payment for the decryption key.
As mentioned, WannaCry has infected over 220,000 devices. Out of this number, only about 250 paid the ransom thus far. At the very least, it looks like most people are listening to expert advise. We're pretty sure loads of researchers are working hard to figure out a free decryption key, as they've done for other ransomware in the past.
If you want, you can see when payments are made to the WannaCry wallets by following this Twitter account.