One thing that has been reported quite a lot is the fact that Garmin, the company which makes fitness bands and fitness apps over the world, was hacked. Also, the fact that this was not just a hack but a ransomware attack too made things worse. As we all know, ransomware attacks are the worst of attacks were all files are locked and there is no way to recover them without decrypting them. Due to that reason, Garmin’s services were also down during the period and it suddenly started to get back from Monday of last week.
We did not know at that time how Garmin was able to recover those files because the company said that they are now back but did not reveal how. However, we know that things can’t be hidden from the world for long and so is the case with Garmin and its ransomware attack. While we knew that Garmin was attacked with WastedLocked ransomware attack, we now also know that they got the decryptor. Thanks to Bleeping Computer who have found out this information, we can also inform you that this is true.
In order to decrypt the files encrypted by the ransomware, you need a key which is called a decryptor and such a key was given to Garmin. Now, we don’t know how the company got it but we do believe that they had to pay the ransom amount in return for the key. There were reports Garmin had to pay a ransom of $10 million and we think they did pay the amount. Bleeping Computer even adds that it “gained access to an executable created by the Garmin IT department to decrypt a workstation and then install a variety of security software on the machine”. This is the same decryptor that was used to decrypt Garmin’s entire workstation as well.
