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Using Distributed Computing To Thwart Ransomware
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The folks at Kaspersky labs are turning to distributed computing to factor the RSA key used by the GPcode virus to encrypt people's files and hold them for ransom. There are two 1024-bit RSA keys to break, which should require a network of about 15 million modern computers to spend a year per key factoring them. Unfortunately, there appear to be no vulnerabilities in the virus' use of RSA, unlike some previous cases. Perhaps more interestingly, there's some debate over whether people should bother cracking it. After all, what if they were trying to trick us into factoring the key for a root signing authority? Besides, there's a more direct method of breaking the encryption: track down the people who wrote the virus and force them to talk."
Surely all the have to do is start using a new key every so often, and the task becomes pointless?
Encourage people to make backups of their data on disc, tape, or portable harddrives. I know that's a radical idea, but it just might be crazy enough to work.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Where's Jack Bauer when you need him ???
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
If only I hadn't erased Jack Bauer's cell from my contact list after the last season...
My 0.02 cents
The people who did that sit in a country ending in -stan. Countries ending in -stan have real problems and don't care for problems their citizens cause abroad.
You can trust me on that one, I've tried. I've even had so much as the name of the person to prosecute. Nothing came out of it. Despite including our federal police and interpol.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They are best off using a large botnet then. Perhaps modify the extortion virus itself so that it's part of solution rather than part of the problem.
15 million CPU years per key? And the attacker can just make up new keys as often as he likes. He could even make a different key for each target if he wanted.
15 million CPU years is a lot to spend when you could just restore from backups.
Simple. Lock them in a cell with a person whose complete pr0n collection is now encrypted. Then go out and come back about an hour later. They talk. They will confess everything, including the assassination of JFK, just as long as they don't have to spend more time with someone whose jackoff material is gone and they're to blame for it.
Talk about motivation!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Fortunately, we had Interbank Data Recovery Services. And Interbank does more than just acquire the decryption key.
That's because Interbank vows to find out who sent you the ransom and hunt them down like animals. Like filthy, dirty animals. That's the Interbank difference. See, I don't care how Interbank's secret police get things done. I just care that they get things done. For us.
Plus, because we'd enrolled in their Premiere Membership program, Interbank also hunted down friends and relatives of the guy who had encrypted our data, dragged them from their beds in the middle of the night, and set fire to their homes.
As long as security is valued at zero dollars when the IT bean counters are evaluating platforms and vendors crapware will proliferate.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Don't forget the corollary.
... how about just including a simple script that will look at how it's installed TODAY and back it up to a location chosen by the user? And then that script will generate a script to install that backup should you need it to. Along with license keys and decoding keys and unlocking keys, etc.
Encourage the application writers to make their applications EASY TO BACKUP.
The problem I keep seeing is that TELLING someone to back up their data is easy to do. FINDING ALL of the data is just about impossible.
You'll never know if you got it all until AFTER a problem.
Or even
The screenshot at http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9965381-7.html?tag=nefd.top says that the victim pays to download a 'decryptor'. Either the decryptor contacts, in real time, the extortionist (at a server location that can be linked to them), or the private key is included in the decryptor program, and should be able to be sussed out...
So the encryption is sound, but did he just delete the old files after encrypting them or did he scrub the drive too.
Someone try to undelete the files with a disk recovery tool and see what you get. Just because the file is encrypted does not mean that the original was correctly destroyed.
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
I suppose if the file in question was something like a manuscript for a novel, where the owner can more or less verify it by eye, and (importantly) there isn't that much downside if our opponent sneaks some changes in, that might be worthwhile. But in general...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
For the Registry, you can "export" the entries for that app to a file and, later, you can import that file into the Registry.
The problem with the Registry is the same as you've noted with the file system. Stuff gets put EVERYWHERE. And there is no way to KNOW that you have EVERYTHING until AFTER you attempt to restore it. AND that doesn't include anything "updated" when you get a patch or point-zero-one release "upgrade".
Now, the installer can put that stuff everywhere
And I don't want to hear that that is to prevent "piracy". Just encrypt the stuff with the unlocking key or whatever. That way I can keep a TEXT file of app-name -- key code on my USB drive along with the backups.
Then I got a virus.
Since then, I make regular backups. Back in my childhood I did regular backups of my family's computer.
Then we got a virus.
Then we realized that the virus was a time bomb that was already present in dormant form even in the oldest several-months old backups.
Sometimes you have parents that are both computer geeks, and they teach you the important of offline backups. Never the less, shit happens anyway.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Enterprise-level backup apps are almost always 3rd-party, not "some kind of unreliable M$ thing". Any serious solution also has a means to restore to bare metal, so in effect you need no OS at all to do this.
(and when was the last time anybody kept any current work on a floppy? Cripes - 1992 called and they want their backup devices back).
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?