Ransomware author's bravado shot down by release of decryption keys

[Conniff]

Security researchers have put a pompous computer criminal in their rightful place after releasing the decryption keys for their ransomware.

 

Lawrence Abrams of Bleeping Computer writes that the ransomware, which was released last week, encrypts users' files using AES encryption, appends the .LOCKED extension to all files, and demands that victims pay a fee of 0.5 BTC (approximately US $210) in exchange for the decryption key. All things considered, a pretty standard piece of malware...

 

"You'll never be able to find me. Police will never be able to find me. Go ahead and try them if you like, but don't expect your data back. They will be concerned about helping the community, not with helping you meet your deadline. If they say they need to keep your desktop for a few days, well lol, you probably won't be seeing your machine again soon, let alone your data. I've been doing this for five years now and haven't been caught yet."

 

"...Just be thankful that it wasn't worse. I could have asked for more money. I could have been working for ISIS and saving that money to behead children. I could have been a mean SOB and just destroyed your data outright. Am I those things? No. I just need the money to live off of (true story) and don't care at all about the hacker 'community'. So there isn't anyone you will be protecting by sacrificing yourself. I'll just encrypt more people's data to make up for the loss."

 

Full article

[Conniff]

They truly need to find this man and lock him up for a long time.

[citizenB]

Indeed they do.

[Conniff]

Another reason why we need this 'Snoopers Charter' to become law.