Wannacry culprits withdraw ransom money

Twitter bot reveals the amount of ransoms paid and the sum raked in by the unknown perpetrators

Money paid out by victims of the Wannacry ransomware pandemic has been withdrawn, with a Twitter bot tracking the wallets flagging up activity last night.

The Wannacry attack in May saw end users across the globe frozen out of their machines, with a ransom note displayed on screens demanding $300 worth of bitcoins be deposited into an online wallet to unlock the devices.

The note added that the ransom would increase every three days before the device was erased in seven days.

A Twitter bot set up by Quartz journalist Keith Collins to track the bitcoin accounts associated with Wannacry has now flagged up seven transactions made overnight, with withdrawals totalling over $142,000.

The total amount in the wallet has fluctuated since the Wannacry outbreak as the valuation of the bitcoin currency changes. Three days ago the total amount in the wallets (52.2 bitcoins) was worth close to $150,000.

According the Twitter bot's data, a total of 338 payments have been made into the wallets, with the most recent coming on 24 July and worth $606 at the time of payment.

The money paid out by firms is relatively low given the estimated damage done to companies globally. A recent report estimated that the damage caused to victims globally was around $8bn.

Cybersecurity professionals had speculated that the hackers would not attempt to withdraw the funds, given the high-profile nature of the attack.