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I am an ordinary software engineer and I could build "ransomware" that does nothing but wipe the victim's disks and demands money be paid to a hard-coded bitcoi
by billpg 7y ago
I am an ordinary software engineer and I could build "ransomware" that does nothing but wipe the victim's disks and demands money be paid to a hard-coded bitcoin address in a convincing looking way. I don't need criminal contacts to do that.
- kkarakk 7y agosure you'd succeed...once. then how do you find another target that would also work with your delivery system? what companies have data sensitive enough for a ransom attack to work? Making a living off ransomware isn't easy if you're a lone wolf
- billpg 7y agoIn this hypothetical, I'm not delivering actual ransomware, but something that just demands money and will never actually release the files. But this is my original point. Someone hit by an attack has no way of knowing what type of attacker they are facing. Will the attacker return my files if I pay up? They might, but there's a very reasonable possibility they can't or won't. Remember, they just want your money. They have no reputation to maintain because they're already criminals.
- kkarakk 7y agoNo, the reputation they have to maintain is of following through on their threats ie maintain their aura of fear. If i KNOW a ransomware attack means an instant loss of data it takes away the sting - it just becomes the same as if the harddrive containing the data went poof. However if there is a chance for me to get the data back you better believe i will try as hard as i can to get the password from the datajackers.