What a mazeīack in 2019, Maze Ransomware came to light: This is where our current story picks up. Other times, they decide “party’s over” with the release of a new variant and hand out a “Get out of jail free” pass to former victims. They may have generated a bit too much heat, and are looking to retreat into the shadows with the suggestion of some good deed done. Researchers figure out a way to recover the decryption key, and publish it so victims can recover their files.
Without backups, which is more common than you may think, the files may be gone forever. You may be able to get rid of the infection, but the all-important files affected by such an attack will still be under lock and key.
If you’re unfortunate enough to be caught out by ransomware, the consequences can be devastating. Update 12th February: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the decryption tool used to unlock files existed prior to the keys being released - this has now been corrected.