Breaking

User Claims Claude Recovered About Two-Thirds of 700 Ransomware-Encrypted Files Without the Key

November 4, 2026 at 20:45 EST

Security
AI Agents

A user says Claude recovered roughly two-thirds of about 700 files that ransomware had encrypted in 2019, despite having no decryption key, after the model first said it could not decrypt them and then found that only the first 16 KB of each file had actually been encrypted.

2019 · Ransomware recovery · User-reported, unverified

A user says Claude recovered about two-thirds of 700 ransomware-locked files, with no decryption key

The encryption reportedly touched only the first 16 KB of each file, leaving the rest of the data intact. That detail is what made recovery possible. The account comes from a single user and has not been independently confirmed.

~700

Files encrypted by ransomware in 2019

~2/3

Reported as recovered

16 KB

Reported encrypted portion per file (the start only)

Decryption keys available

Files affected vs. reported recovery

Schematic, not to scale. Each block is roughly 10% of the ~700 files; two-thirds is about 7 of 10 blocks.

Encrypted

~700 files

Recovered (reported)

About two-thirds

How the reported recovery unfolded

STEP 1

Ransomware encrypts files; the key is unavailable

→

STEP 2

Model first says it cannot decrypt the files

→

Continue reading

The rest of this article is for AI News Blitz readers. Choose an option below to keep reading.