Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Security Privacy IT Technology

Author of Original Petya Ransomware Publishes Master Decryption Key (bleepingcomputer.com) 65

An anonymous reader writes: The author of the original Petya ransomware -- a person/group going by the name of Janus Cybercrime Solutions -- has released the master decryption key of all past Petya versions. This key can decrypt all ransomware families part of the Petya family except NotPetya, which isn't the work of Janus, but is believed to be the work of a nation-state actor that targeted Ukraine. Most (original) Petya campaigns happened in 2016, and very few campaigns have been active this year. Users that had their files locked have wiped drives or paid the ransom many months before. The key will only help those victims who cloned their drives and saved a copy of the encrypted data. Experts believe that Janus released Petya's decryption key as a result of the recent NotPetya outbreak, and he might have decided to shut down his operation to avoid further scrutiny, or being accused of launching NotPetya.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Author of Original Petya Ransomware Publishes Master Decryption Key

Comments Filter:
  • You could look at the whole propagation of the ransomware as an attention getter, a brilliant advertising campaign that has netted the creator(s) many millions worth of advertising and street-cred. Wouldn't you hire this person/company now for your security needs, good or bad?
    Awesome.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Would I hire a person with morals so unquestionably bankrupt that he would willingly and deliberately fuck over as much of society as he could for his own personal gain?

      No.

  • Any machines infected with Petya have either already paid the ransom, or have been wiped and restored from backup. Even if someone *DID* clone the infected/encrypted drive, the files on it will be over 6 months old. Surely, the users of those machines have gotten around all this time without those files.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Maybe you had personal photos or business files on the hard-drive that you still want to recover. Not everyone can afford to buy HDDs just for backups. From my experience, people that had sensitive data put those drives away just for this moment.
  • You know malware is truly mainstream when you have to wait for July sales before you purchase anything just like every other product.

  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday July 08, 2017 @01:48PM (#54770245)

    he author of the original Petya ransomware -- a person/group going by the name of Janus Cybercrime Solutions ...

    Seems they're more a part of the "problems" than "solutions".

    • Janus was the two-faced god One face is the problems, one face is the solutions.
      • by zifn4b ( 1040588 )

        Janus was the two-faced god One face is the problems, one face is the solutions.

        Sell me this pen. "See what he did there? He's creating demand."

A good supervisor can step on your toes without messing up your shine.

Working...