PETYA

[jeffbert]

I heard of this new threat of losing our data from our hard drives. As I have NORTON, i do not expect that I am vulnerable anyway, but TECHSPOT has an article about it. TECHSPOT gave this link for a vaccination. Apparently, the current version of the attack can be avoided by simply creating a file in the WINDOWS directory. a discussion and batch file are here. I myself opened it in the editor just to be sure I was not screwing myself by running it. Farther down on the page is the complete text /code for the batch file, for those interested in making their own batch files, just to be on the safe side.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/vaccine-not-killswitch-found-for-petya-notpetya-ransomware-outbreak/

Anyway, after I ran the batch file, I opened the Windows directory, & checked that the files had been created with the read only attribute. I do not know if NORTON WILL delete these files.

[AstroAllies]

I heard that Petya and WannaCry are similar in terms of how does they attack the data. Are they really similar, or they are two different things?

[fafner]

They are from the same source code. The author(s) just created a new version that "fixed" some if its shortcomings and changed a few features.