An udentified hacker/s have put the word online; he/she/they have a decryption key that can save any computer attacked by Petya (or NotPetya. Semantics) and they will give it away – of course, not for free. Hacker’s price is a pretty steep 100 bitcoins, which translates into a significant sum of 250 thousand dollars. Such key probably belongs to the virus’ creators – proof of which may be fact that around ten thousand bitcoins have been moved out of the account associated with Petya (why such account has not been blocked days ago is beyond me). Reportedly, at least one person investigated the announcement and sent a Petya-decrypted file to the hacker/s in order to get it fixed, but has not heard from the them again.

There are two popular theories regarding the hacker/s. One is that they are the creators of Petya who now try to further profit from their creation. Second one is that the announcement is a complete hoax created by an unknown party in order to make a quick buck. Personally I believe the latter theory to be the truth – Petya was never about money, as its creators did not unlock blocked PCs even after receiving their ransom, and the very option of paying the ransom was quickly cut off. While nothing is 100% certain, this ”decryption key” is probably a false promise made to lure a few desperate company owners to coughing up the money.