Petya is a ransomware, what this name implies is that this software was developed to crypt all your files so you have no more access to them, after this is done a ransom will be demanded to give you back your files.
Petya is even more aggressive than its predecessors, in the sense that it works in such a way that it forces a system reboot, completely blocking your hard drive from the start-up process. Once the program is running, it forces this reboot process where a fake hard drive checkup message will be shown. This process will create a Master boot Record which will be the one in charge of showing the threatening message and stopping Windows from starting at all.
Ransomware such as Petya usually spread through spam containing attached files, we can also find them in file sharing/exchanging networks (torrents, P2P, etc), and also within software and video games cracks. In Petya‘s case we noticed that it imitates a legitimate e-mail message where a Dropbox link is presented taking the user to the virus file.
Up until now, there’s no way nor software able to decrypt files affected by Petya. Some experts recommend to reinstall your OS, however according to some users, this won’t reconstruct the file table, making it impossible to recover files on the hard drive. The only available protection against this kind of issue is to never download suspicious software, nor open suspicious e-mail messages, plus is important to remember to backup your data regularly.
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