The Quiet Life of the Nemesis of Ransomware Gangs

[Recusant]

I'm far enough out of the cybersecurity loop that I've never heard of this fellow. Apparently he's doing an amazing service, but he needs to take better care of himself. Hat-tip to Lark for showing me this story.  

"Hated and hunted" | BBC

Ransomware is a particularly nasty type of computer virus.

Instead of stealing data or money from victims, the virus takes control of computers and scrambles every single document, picture, video and email.

Then the ransom demand is issued. Sometimes it's written inside a note left on a desktop, sometimes it just pops up on a screen without warning.

"I'VE ENCRYPTED YOUR FILES PAY ME OR THEY WILL BE GONE FOREVER"

They always come with a price tag. Pay the hackers a few hundred pounds - or sometimes thousands - and they'll restore your files.

All of the victims mentioned above were hit with some form of ransomware. But the Hong Kong businessman didn't lose his job and the photographer and head teacher were able to recover their work.

None had to pay any money, and once they'd got their lives back in order, all sent emails of thanks to the same person.

He's a man who has devoted himself, at huge personal cost, to helping victims of ransomware around the world. A man who guards his privacy dearly to protect himself, because for every message of gratitude he receives, almost as many messages of abuse come at him from the cyber criminals who hate him.

In fact, they hate him so much that they leave him angry threats buried deep inside the code of their own viruses.

[Continues . . .]

[Tom62]

My wife received a message (I'm not joking) like: "I've got proof that you were watching porn. You better send me (an x amount of) bitcoins, because otherwise I'll tell your friends".

[Recusant]

The "porn blackmail" message is a fairly common spam email, but I don't think I've ever seen one from a Nigerian bank manager. 

[xSilverPhinx]

I'm far enough out of the cybersecurity loop that I've never heard of this fellow. Apparently he's doing an amazing service, but he needs to take better care of himself. Hat-tip to Lark for showing me this story.  

"Hated and hunted" | BBC

Ransomware is a particularly nasty type of computer virus.

Instead of stealing data or money from victims, the virus takes control of computers and scrambles every single document, picture, video and email.

Then the ransom demand is issued. Sometimes it's written inside a note left on a desktop, sometimes it just pops up on a screen without warning.

"I'VE ENCRYPTED YOUR FILES PAY ME OR THEY WILL BE GONE FOREVER"

They always come with a price tag. Pay the hackers a few hundred pounds - or sometimes thousands - and they'll restore your files.

All of the victims mentioned above were hit with some form of ransomware. But the Hong Kong businessman didn't lose his job and the photographer and head teacher were able to recover their work.

None had to pay any money, and once they'd got their lives back in order, all sent emails of thanks to the same person.

He's a man who has devoted himself, at huge personal cost, to helping victims of ransomware around the world. A man who guards his privacy dearly to protect himself, because for every message of gratitude he receives, almost as many messages of abuse come at him from the cyber criminals who hate him.

In fact, they hate him so much that they leave him angry threats buried deep inside the code of their own viruses.

[Continues . . .]

That's very interesting!