Stellar cracks WannaCry attack, works on 5 Indian cases to recover data

Stellar's data recovery experts analysed drives infected with ransomware to identify weakness

In a good news for those struggling to gain access to locked data after the "WannaCry" attack hit Windows users in 150 countries, Stellar Data Recovery on Friday claimed it has cracked the ransomware at its R&D labs and is currently working on five cases from India.

Stellar received requests from over two dozen customers with a specific request for recovering lost data from "WannaCry" affected drives.

The requests were received at several data recovery laboratories locations.

"We are already working on five specific 'WannaCry' cases at our Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Kochi locations. Our data recovery lab services are subscribed by customers who would like a professional expert to examine the affected drives and recover lost data," Sunil Chandna, CEO, Stellar Data Recovery, told IANS.

Stellar's data recovery experts analysed drives infected with the ransomware and after careful evaluation, they were able to identify a possible weakness.

The research and development team then updated their software "Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery" to exploit the vulnerability.

Data can be recovered either using "Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Free Edition" or by subscribing to the company's professional lab services in India and Europe.

"Since we have published an update on our website yesterday, Stellar Phoenix data recovery software was downloaded by over 600 users. 'Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software for Windows' has a FREE edition that can help customers recover data at ZERO cost," Chandna added.

Stellar has a dedicated team of over 80 R&D professionals who work on solving ever-evolving data loss problems.

"Since the news broke of this attack late last week, our R&D team spent hours researching and developing ingenious ways to resolve this crisis. I am happy with their accomplishment and am confident that it will benefit thousands affected by this crisis", Chandna noted.

According to the data recovery company, all files stored outside "My Documents" and "Desktop" locations on the infected device can be recovered in many cases through Stellar's do-it-yourself software "Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Free Edition" from www.stellarinfo.com.

Users simply have to download and install this software on a desktop or laptop, which is not infected by this ransomware, connect the infected hard drive as an external media and perform a scan.

All data can be saved after successfully scanning the infected drive without the need to pay ransomware in bitcoins.

"We are confident that we would be able to help our global customers in future too," Chandna told IANS.