Hackers Behind WannaCry Virus Have Withdrawn All the Money

The WannaCry ransomware infected more than 200,000 computers worldwide and managed to collect more than $140,000 since it spread in May 2017. The WannaCry ransomware virus blocked access to computers and demanded a ransom of $300 or $600 in Bitcoins. 

However, since the beginning of the attacks, there were no attempts to withdraw funds from the Bitcoin wallets that were used to collect money. These wallets were watched by law enforcement agencies and victims around the world, and most weren’t expecting that someone would actually withdraw the money. 

A digitally native news outlet,  Quartz, has created a twitter bot that was following these wallets. In the early morning of August 3, the bot noticed the first transactions from these wallets. 

Within 15 minutes, and seven transactions later, all the money had been withdrawn.

Quartz noted that the money was likely sent through a bitcoin mixer, a process that obscures its trail from bitcoin to hard currency.