"BlackMatter Bug Saved Victims Millions in Ransom Payments"

Security researchers at Emisoft claim to have saved BlackMatter ransomware victims millions over the past few months after exploiting a bug they found in the malware to recover files for free.  The researchers stated that they have been building decryption tools and services to help ransomware victims for a long time. However, the researchers found that the most effective method to help ransomware victims is to search for vulnerabilities in the code of ransomware variants and exploit them to benefit the victims. The researchers at Emisoft did not publicly disclose the flaws they found, but instead, they communicated what they found to law enforcement agencies and trusted parties.  Unfortunately, the group eventually realized what had happened and remediated the bug several weeks ago.  The researchers at Emsisoft have also identified flaws in around a dozen other ransomware variants, saving victim organizations significant time and money.

Infosecurity reports: "BlackMatter Bug Saved Victims Millions in Ransom Payments"