Government Is Asking Microsoft To Discount The Price Of Windows 10 To Counter Ransomware

The recent ransomware attacks have shown that India is one of the most affected countries. While most of the west upgraded to Windows 10, the Asian country with more than 50 million Windows users still lags behind.

Windows 10 is the safest operating system among all Windows OS. Rather, during the WannaCry ransomware attack, Windows claimed that none of those working with on Windows 10 were affected by the ransomware. Thus, it becomes important for users to upgrade to Windows 10 to safeguard them from the attacks. 

Indian government wants Microsoft to sell Windows 10 at discounted prices

In India, most users didn’t upgrade to Windows 10 because of the cost involved. And perhaps, they still won’t upgrade for the same reasons despite the security concerns.

According to India’s cyber security coordinator, Gulshan Rai, Microsoft has, “in principle agreed” to the deal. Though it is yet to be confirmed. Microsoft (both from US and India) has totally declined to comment on the news.

The problem is that if Microsoft allows such a deal to India, all other countries will start pushing similar demands for such discounts. When Rai was asked, he said that they were discussing the plan with Microsoft officials in India and did not know of any such demands by other countries.

The security coordinator said they wanted Windows 10 at “throw-away prices” for the whole country. He said that he wanted it for less than quarter of the original price.

He added, “The quantum of the price cut, we expect some detail on in a couple of days. It will be a one-time upgrade offer to Windows 10 and it will be a discounted price for the entire country.”

Rai, who worked with the IT industry for more than two decades was selected as the cyber security coordinator for the country by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.  The NotPetya ransomware affected 2 of India’s ports in Mumbai. This was a huge attack considering the position of the ports.

Though the country took quick measures to counter the attack, most of it’s ATM’s run on Windows XP, which is a serious security concern.

Windows 10 was a free upgrade when launched, but as of present, it is quite a costly OS. The home version costs Rs 7,999 in India, and the Pro version costs Rs 14,999.

Hacker That Created Petya Ransomware Offers To Help Victims

Just when we thought that the destruction of WannaCry ransomware had stopped, another similar type of attack had been spotted in Ukraine banks. The latest Ransomware which goes by the name Petya is locking the computer of Government offices.

The latest ransomware campaign is already created lots of havoc across the world. US, Europe, and India are the countries which have been heavily affected by the latest Ransomware campaign.

Researchers are doing hard work to find a fix for Petya. The have also termed Petya as a wiper, which is much more worse than ransomware. Researcher Matt Suiche, founder of security firm Comae had examined Petya and found that Petya is actually a wiper which is deleting all the first sector of the disk. 


The security firm, Kaspersky had also analyzed the installation id that displayed on a victim’s screen, which they say is just generating random data. The security firm says that the attacker can’t actually decrypt the disk after getting the ransom since it doesn’t have any decryption key.

The first version of Petya had appeared in 2016 and it was created by Janus Cybercrime solution. When the first version of Petya came in the spotlight, the Twitter account of Janus @JanusSecretary was deactivated. However, after the new version of Petya which is also known as NonPetya made the appearance in 2017, the Twitter account of Janus was reactivated.

@JanusSecretary resurfaced on Twitter late Wednesday, seemingly offering to help those whose files can no longer be retrieved. Here’s what JANUS tweeted:

The tweet was first pointed out by The Daily Beast, this tweet clearly shows that the hacker wasn’t involved in this crime. Several cyber security experts have also expressed the similar emotions.

Let me tell you something about Janus, he launched a darknet website which is based on a black-market business model called RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service). RaaS offers other cyber criminals access to a sophisticated ransomware-distribution platform.

So, what do you think about this? Share your views in the comment box below.

NotPetya Ransomware Kill Switch That Can Stop Ransomware In It Tracks Has Been Release

A Kill Switch or Vaccination for the Petrwrap or NoPetya or NotPetya Ransomware has been found that can stop the ransomware in its tracks and save your computer from being infected. The NotPetya Ransomware has already created havoc in most parts of the world.

NotPetya uses the EternalBlue vulnerability (WannaCry technique) that infects computers using SMBv1. It also uses Windows WMIC and PSExec processes. If the WannaCry vulnerability is patched on your system, it uses PsExec or LSADUMP and the Windows Management Interface to spread. 

The ransomware is capable of attacking and infecting all Windows systems. It overwrites the Master Boot Record and on reboot, infects the computer blocking access to it. Once it hacks your computer, it demands a ransom amount of $300 in Bitcoin.

If your computer reboots and you see this ‘false check disk’ message, power off immediately!

This is the NotPetya encryption process taking place. If you power off immediately or do not power on, your data will remain safe.

If the encryption process is allowed to continue, you will lose your data to this ransomware!

There are however some basic precautions you can take, and they are:

1. Install all Windows patches
2. Block SMB1 across your network
3. Disable default ADMIN$ accounts and communication to Admin$ shares
4. Use a tool like MBR filter to block write access to the Master Boot Record

More details about how this ransomware operates can be found on Cybereason.com.

NotPetya Ransomware Vaccination

Cybereason Principal Security Researcher Amit Serper tweeted that he has discovered a vaccination that stops NotPetya ransomware in its tracks.

To activate the vaccination mechanism you have to create a file named perfc, with no extension and place it in the C:\Windows\ folder.

When NotPetya ransomware runs, it searches for this file in the C:\Windows\ folder, and if it is found, it ceases its operation.

UPDATE: Eset recommends that you create three blank files with the following filenames and extensions:

1. C:\Windows\perfc
2. C:\Windows\perfc.dat
3. C:\Windows\perfc.dll

Ransomware attacks are on the rise, and all computers users need to take some basic precautions to secure their systems. One can also consider some free anti-ransomware software like RansomFree as an additional security layer.