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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."
Someone working with a ransomware scammer might not be the most trustworthy source of information.
Assuming this is true...
What should happen is that the "genius" who thought this up should be convicted and sent to prison for 30 years (or whatever they threatened Aaron Swartz with), for breaking the CFAA.
What actually will happen is that $BIGCORP will get a trivial slap-on-the-wrist fine.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
If evidence exists that this event happened, the corporation that directed the attack needs to have all of their top executive imprisoned.
Either that, or they'll be punished with a huge bonus and limos stocked with underage hookers and blow.
Guess which one is more likely to happen.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
There was a customer who walked into my shop to get his iPhone 4s fixed a month or so ago. While he was waiting, we made small talk, and he bragged about his pickup truck. He told me that it has a 'chip' that makes it produce 900HP. He used to have a 1000HP chip, but his grandfather saw him spinning his tires, so he told him to take it out.
The truck was a rusty, 20-year-old Dodge, with a V8 that produces about 240HP from the factory.
Did I smile and nod, occasionally saying 'Wow'? Of course. Did I believe him? Not in the least.
This also reminds me of a story from one of the Gawker blogs, where a writer interviewed taxi drivers. The question she asked was: "Have you ever been propositioned by a passenger?" Most said "No", a couple said "Once", and one guy claimed that it happened every night, and that he had women falling all over him.
The part of this story that makes it a little unbelievable is the range of customers he claimed to have. 'Husbands and wives'; do they have a website where we can go and order some hacking? If not, how are these average citizens finding them? 'Governments'? I should expect that most interested governments would instead invest into their own cyber-military, rather than hiring a 2-bit scammer. This just doesn't smell right.
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.
I keep thinking that we seem to be inching closer and closer to Shadowrun... but I'm still waiting for the elves, orcs, and the magic to start popping up. Nevermind a dragon running for president.