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Ransomware maker TeslaCrypt shuts down after releasing master key
- pavel_lishin 10y agoI wonder what caused them to release this.
- Nadya 10y agoSupposedly a researcher asked them to, since they're switching to a different ransomware/provider of ransomware(?) People won't pay the ransom if they lose their data anyways. So since they no longer accept payments from [X] ransomware they released the key. This way when they infect people with [Y] ransomware they are more likely to pay. It's this weird sort of racket where they hold to their word (they'll give you a key to unlock your data!) but they're the ones locking away your data to begin with... but people are more likely to pay if they hold to their word.
- fencepost 10y agoI didn't get that the developers were switching to something new, but that the developers were shutting down and the distributors (people actually working to get TeslaCrypt onto PCs) were switching to something new - presumably because the TeslaCrypt folks were going away. The Bleeping Computer article has much better information (and comments) than the TechCrunch reporting of it. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/teslacrypt-shuts-down-and-releases-master-decryption-key/ http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/teslacrypt-shu...
- Nadya 10y ago>I didn't get that the developers were switching to something new, but that the developers were shutting down and the distributors (people actually working to get TeslaCrypt onto PCs) were switching to something new - presumably because the TeslaCrypt folks were going away. Aw, that makes more sense. I thought the devs and distributors were one and the same.
- rosege 10y agoreminds me a bit of the joke about the kid who kills both his parents and when being sentenced asks the judge to go easy on him because he's an orphan
- vertis 10y agoGetting caught by their mother is my bet.
- cm2187 10y agoOr a deal with the FBI (unless by mother you mean FBI). They be nice, release the key, work for them for a few years, and avoid getting gang raped in an overcrowded jail for 10 years.
- april1stislame 10y agoOr by Phineas Phisher... Remember those 10BTC he donated to the Kurds?
- theandrewbailey 10y agoKnowing they targeted gamers, I wonder if they got tired of the death threats and/or got swatted.
- zo1 10y agoThat's a very dishonest thing to say about gamers.
- balls187 10y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=gamergate+swat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=gamergate+swat&ie=utf-8&oe=u... Full disclosure: I was a gamer (never swatted, but said a few inappropriate things in my day).
- metalliqaz 10y agoThe only connection there is between GG and swatting is that they are both things that happen on the Internet.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- MustardTiger 10y agoThat google search is not supporting the slander in question.
- balls187 10y agolibel
- MustardTiger 10y ago
- drivingmenuts 10y agoWill we ever know their identities?
- nsxwolf 10y agoMaybe extortion. Perhaps some vigilante tracked them down and threatened them with bodily harm.
- mike_hock 10y ago> releasing master key Rookie mistake. No wonder they had to shut down!
- bdcravens 10y agoDid you read the article? They released the master key when they shut down, not before.
- CDRdude 10y agoThe comment was pretty clearly a joke.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoSounds like they're releasing it because they shut down.
- JBReefer 10y agoJokes ruin forums
- B1FF_PSUVM 10y agoAnd vice-versa. "You should've seen the other guy." Yeah, it don't scale. One or two smart-asses in a small group, it's a good time. Couple dozen firing at will in a forum for hundreds or thousands, it's poison in the well. Someone get sociologists on it, to earn their stipends.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ourmandave 10y agoWho is the apology for? Their victims or their backers?
- chaosfox 10y agothe victims are their backers. thats how ransom works.
- ourmandave 10y agoOr they might have someone who paid them to write the ransomware and now it doesn't work.
- cwkoss 10y agoSeems like the only way Ransomware will ever die is if people start releasing non-functional ransomware implementations that accept payment but leave data encrypted, so people become skeptical of whether paying will actually get their data back.
- jlgaddis 10y agoYeah, I suppose the victims have been lucky that, thus far, pretty much all of the attackers have been "honest".
- vizzah 10y agothat's their "business model", don't expect they would want to ruin it ;)
- sqeaky 10y agoOnly takes one well spread one who wants to save on actual crypto effort but reap similar rewards to ruin it for everyone. In the absence of good communication the tragedy of the commons is... well its common.
- thaumasiotes 10y agoFailing to return your victims' data doesn't just poison the well for other, more sensible ransomware makers -- it poisons it for you. Once you take the first guy's money and leave him with his files destroyed, why would the second guy pay you?
- drivingmenuts 10y agoWhich tells me the other solution is for victims to say it didn't work, even after they paid those assholes.
- iSnow 10y ago
- tgb 10y agoWhy were they targeting video games? Seems like you can just reinstall and that corporate or personal information would be much more valuable and high ransom.
- stingraycharles 10y agoThey were targeting savegames specifically.
- Laforet 10y agoas well as recorded replays
- ben_jones 10y agoLow hanging fruit. Gamers will download anything, game files are always in an easy to access location.
- rtpg 10y agoA lot of game pirating instructions involve "disable your antivirus"
- brobinson 10y agoSome game mods do, too, as they'll legitimately patch binaries either on disk or in memory through DLL injection.
- ikeboy 10y agoBlogspam of http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/teslacrypt-shuts-down-and-releases-master-decryption-key/ http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/teslacrypt-shu...
- Someone1234 10y agoHere's the actual master decryption key for TeslaCrypt in case the article disappears or the image does: 440A241DD80FCC5664E861989DB716E08CE627D8D40C7EA360AE855C727A49EE And software: https://github.com/Googulator/TeslaCrack https://github.com/Googulator/TeslaCrack
- alainv 10y agoYou linked the wrong/outdated software: https://github.com/Googulator/TeslaCrack/commit/ca30a5320ebb357ea852883605ca64964e5f29e9 https://github.com/Googulator/TeslaCrack/commit/ca30a5320ebb... > The extensions '.xxx', '.micro', '.mp3' and '.ttt' have been reported for new variants of TeslaCrypt (3.0 and 4.0), and this tool cannot decrypt them, anyway. Please use TeslaDecoder instead, with 440A241DD80FCC5664E861989DB716E08CE627D8D40C7EA360AE855C727A49EE as the key. TeslaDecoder, as mentioned in the article, is hosted here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/576600/tesladecoder-released-to-decrypt-exx-ezz-ecc-files-encrypted-by-teslacrypt/ http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/576600/tesladecoder...
- Mandatum 10y agoWonder how long it'll take for the commercial AV vendors to issue a "we can decrypt this automatically!" press release.
- andrewclunn 10y agoJust try and encrypt my optical storage backups. Old school is the best school. Tape, the anti ransomware.
- DigitalJack 10y agoThe best thing about optical storage backups is that they are self destructing.
- cm2187 10y agoWhat's the point of encrypting video games? I'd rather wipe out the drive and reinstall the games than pay, not be certain it will work, and know my PC still has some potentially active malware somewhere, waiting to be sold to a botnet.