6 ms·
>Also appears to be paid: https://blockchain.info/address/115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNX.. https://blockchain.info/address/115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNX.... Appea
by ryanlol 10y ago
>Also appears to be paid: https://blockchain.info/address/115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNX.. https://blockchain.info/address/115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNX....
Appears to be paid twice in fact, honestly I'd bet that it's people paying these as a joke rather than the NHS.
- jstanley 10y agoIt's quite a lot of money to spend as a joke. And multiple payments could occur if the software has a pre-populated list of addresses rather than generating a new one for each infected machine. Of course, it could be the attacker sending money to himself to try to make victims think other people are paying.
- oh_sigh 10y agoA lot of people have a lot of bitcoin sitting around with no desire to cash out of it.
- ge96 10y agoI've started buying it every time I get paid from my wage_slave job. I don't know what to do with it. I mean some stores support it, and I found you can buy Amazon gift cards. It's not like you just "turn it into cash" and Xappo is not supported in the US. I realize there are alternatives. I don't have much anyway, but it's crazy! Worth more than gold. I wonder about that 4K $ value that someone estimated. I'm just buying for FOMO I guess.
- Cyph0n 10y agoRansomware attacks are typically honest; in other words, if you pay, they unlock your files.
- roblabla 10y agoDo we have actual, hard data backing this up ? I see this touted each time ransomware is involved, sometimes backed with the 'logical' argument that the business model would crumble if that wasn't the case. But I have yet to see any research into whether those ransomware really do unlock those files.
- Cyph0n 10y agoI don't have any data, but a professor who taught me said that this is how it works. He's an expert on botnets and is in close contact with major AV vendors.
- giarc 10y agoNot the commentor, and also don't have data other than some anecdotal, but what benefit do the hackers gain by not unlocking data? If they stop unlocking, then people stop paying. It would become a lose lose situation if they didn't follow through with their promises. Even criminals understand that.
- watty 10y agoI think the main benefit would be that they have a better chance of getting paid. Developing an unlocking mechanism is technically challenging and takes time and money to implement. It also adds risk - if there's an unlocking mechanism it's possible someone can crack it. By not developing an unlock in the first place they can get it out quicker and have less risk. Sure, the next hacker may not get paid because they aren't trusted but for the most part we're talking about individual operations.
- nathan_f77 10y ago> if there's an unlocking mechanism it's possible someone can crack it. Not at all. This is run-of-the-mill encryption. You pay the bitcoins, your computer receives the decryption key. There is no possible way to crack it, otherwise the entire internet would be broken. (i.e. TLS)
- BoorishBears 10y agoExcept there've been multiple cases of ransomware where the encryption was improperly implemented and trivially cracked. Similar to the entire internet, while the tools to securely encrypt things exist, incompetence can cause people to roll their own, or roll things out improperly.
- djsumdog 10y agoWhat about really old ransomware where the payment release systems are no longer maintained? Are there some cases where old dead ransomware is still infecting people, but the scripts to unlock things on payment are no longer running?
- jstanley 10y agoMy understanding is that the decryption key release is performed manually.
- jstanley 10y ago> Ransomware attacks are typically honest For a rather generous interpretation of "honest" :)
- sorokod 10y agoIf the malware wasn't removed will it kick in again after a while or does paying the ransome gives you immunity?
- nathan_f77 10y ago> Of course, it could be the attacker sending money to himself to try to make victims think other people are paying. Other people are definitely paying. The scheme stops working as soon as word gets out that paying doesn't restore your files.
- RubenSandwich 10y agoI doubt people are sending ~233 British Pounds(~300 USD), according to current exchange rates, as a joke. Edit. Corrected currency to the Pound.
- rodolphoarruda 10y ago557k USD
- maccard 10y agowhere do you see k in the article? It's £300, not £300k
- rodolphoarruda 10y agoI guess I read it too fast and made a confusion with the numbers. I thought it was 300 bitcoins, which at ~$1800 each would total 540k USD. Too bad I got downvoted just because of this.
- k-mcgrady 10y agoI think you've done it backwards. $300USD would cost someone in the UK £233GBP.
- RubenSandwich 10y agoYour right. Thanks.
- CyberDildonics 10y agoI think it is more likely to be a mistake made by someone new to using bitcoin.
- sbuttgereit 10y agoI would guess that multiple people within the NHS may also just be acting in an uncoordinated manner to see if a relatively tiny sum can just make this go away. I would further expect that a spend on this small scale would be in the discretion of many managers at the NHS. (UPDATE: sounds like there are many more impacted parties since I first commented, so my comment is likely much less correct.)
- zhoujianfu 10y agoMore likely the ransomware is not sophisticated and uses the same address for all its victims. Typically it's just hard-coded and then they ask you to just email them with which transaction is yours to unlock. So you could just wait for somebody else to pay and then quickly claim their transaction first..
- jstanley 10y agoWe already know multiple addresses have been used. Apart from that, I agree: I suspect it has a hardcoded list of addresses and it picks one at random.
- zhoujianfu 10y agoMore likely the ransomware is not sophisticated and uses the same address for all its victims. Typically it's just hard-coded and then they ask you to just email them with which transaction is yours to unlock. So you could just wait for somebody else to pay and then quickly claim their transaction first..