Russian Police Know Who Wrote Gpcode Virus

rifles only writes "Russian police almost certainly know the identity of the programmer responsible for the frightening 'ransomware' crypto virus, Gpcode, which has hit the Internet several times since 2006, says a story at Techworld, which has tapped a Kaspersky Lab researcher. Gpcode used 1024-bit RSA/128-bit RC4 to lock up victims' data, an uncrackable combination that left the world with only one solution: find the virus author to get the master key. So why don't the cops do anything? Good question, but this is Russia we're talking about."

Comments

what?

[SolusSD]

"Good question, but this is Russia we're talking about." ?? Someone care to enlighten me what that was about?

Re:what?

[MoonlightSeraphim]

The implication is that the ... government ... protects those with money or ties to money.

now if we look at it this way it is not much different from any other government.

Re:what?

[Bryan Ischo]

I don't know very much about the actual causes of this issue, however I do find it really annoying that someone must invariably turn the discussion into an "it's the Democrats' fault! No, it's the Republicans' fault!" waste of time. You cited only Democratic presidents (and president hopefuls) in your post. I find it VERY hard to believe that there isn't blame to be place on just about every politician out there, regardless of party. So why do you feel the need to try to make this issue partisan? It's attitudes like yours that turn intelligent discussion into useless time sinks, which is the root cause of the USA's political environment being so dysfunctional.

In short: if voters use their brains, then they will elect politicians who use their brains. You are encouraging voters not to use their brains with arguments like yours. So you and people like you are the real root of the problem.

Changes in the wind.

[Ostracus]

"According to Kaspersky, stopping ransomware-based malware in the future will require more effective law enforcement, the use of forensic software analysis to tie suspects to their malevolent creations, and possibly building restrictions into the Windows cryptographic software libraries used to create Gpcode itself."

This concerns me more than what the cops do as pointed out in the story there's the difficulty of getting the money back to the ransomware author.

Re:Changes in the wind.

[jimicus]

"According to Kaspersky, stopping ransomware-based malware in the future will require more effective law enforcement, the use of forensic software analysis to tie suspects to their malevolent creations, and possibly building restrictions into the Windows cryptographic software libraries used to create Gpcode itself."

Then Kaspersky are idiots - any malware author with half a brain will simply statically link their code with a stripped down OpenSSL library.

So why don't the cops do anything?

[Richard_at_work]

Good question, but this is Russia we're talking about.

Theres a world of difference between knowing who did something, and having enough proof to be able to arrest them, charge them and convict them.

but how does it work?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a good point someone brought up. In the situation of ransom, how
will it ever work?
If large amount of funds are transferred by bank, they can
find and freeze the bank account.
If large amount of funds are transferred in cash,
the money can be traced so you would be caught if you use it.

So What is the the point in ransoming in the current era? There must be
something I am missing.

Simple

[Shivetya]

It is implied that in Russia there are no rights, if the government wants something or someone it doesn't think twice about getting it regardless of the ramifications.

Of course that is not much different from Western Countries, we just like to pretend otherwise.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, isn't this the modern Russia which has imprisoned and shut down all free media, poisoned the Ukranian head of state, also brazenly poisoning people in other countries. Holds Europe hostage with its petroleum, and Putin is now head of state for life.

When the NYT's has a regime change by Bush after printing something unflattering to him, then come tell me that there is no difference.

Re:The enemy of my enemy is my friend

[billcopc]

Yet again the summary misleads, but it's no secret the Russian authorities don't have the resources to investigate anything of importance, and that problem leads to the iconic corruption that brings it full-circle.'