On Thursday, the software company Kaseya announced that it could help unlock any of its customers’ systems that were still inaccessible following a devastating ransomware attack early this month that took down as many as 1,500 businesses worldwide. But for many victims it was too little, too late.
Kaseya had obtained a decryption key, the company said, that could release any file still locked down by malicious software produced by the criminal gang REvil, which is believed to operate from Eastern Europe or Russia.
For the organizations whose systems were still offline three weeks after the attack, the newfound availability of a decryptor tool offered a sign of hope, especially after REvil mysteriously disappeared from the internet and left many organizations unable to contact the group.