The title is clickbait, but I actually enjoyed the discussion of Windows' design within the article. One key thing that the author has missed: Ransomware works

The title is clickbait, but I actually enjoyed the discussion of Windows' design within the article. One key thing that the author has missed: Ransomware works very well even without SYSTEM level privileges. The goal here is to encrypt files the user has access to, therefore if you move SMB Server into the user's context you haven't really hampered WannaCry's overarching goal. Back in the early 2000s there was this assumption that malware needs root/SYSTEM to be successful. The last five years has shown that that assumption is incorrect, with a lot of popular malware never even attempting to escalate, and happily performing their function as the user (since that's where all the "goods" are anyway). There are a few exceptions to this, like stealing cached AD credentials, but overall you can do a lot just by having the ability to install evil browser extensions, turn on the webcam, and encrypt files.