Fortune 500 Company Hires Ransomware Gang To Hack the Competition (vice.com)

It's no secret that ransomware hackers are in the business to make money. But a new business arrangement hitting the news today may surprise many. Vice's Motherboard, citing research and investigation (PDF) from security firm F-Secure, is reporting that a Fortune 500 company, the name of which hasn't been unveiled, hired a ransomware gang to hack its competitors. From the article: In an exchange with a security researcher pretending to be a victim, one ransomware agent claimed they were working for a Fortune 500 company. "We are hired by [a] corporation to cyber disrupt day-to-day business of their competition," the customer support agent of a ransomware known as Jigsaw said, according to a new report by security firm F-Secure. "The purpose was just to lock files to delay a corporation's production time to allow our clients to introduce a similar product into the market first."In a statement to Motherboard, Mikko Hypponen said, "If this indeed was a case where ransomware was used on purpose to disrupt a competitor's operation, it's the only case we know of." F-Secure adds that the consumer representative noted that "politicians, governments, husbands, wives -- people from all walks of life contract [them] to hack computers, cell phones."

Comments

Re:Wow

[__aaclcg7560]

if they help fortune 500 companies stay rich, their methods will be legalized soon.

During the robber baron days, it was common for the corporations to hire mercenaries and thugs to wage battles with workers and strikers. Murder, mayhem and riots were so routine that the government had to dispatch the military. That activity got outlawed. Internet warfare between corporations will get outlawed in time.

Re:Consider the source

[Locke2005]

Sociopaths make better CEOs. I believe that has been proven by research. Actually, Forbes thinks psychopaths make better CEOs: http://www.forbes.com/sites/je... I would have just said sociopaths, myself.