Slashdot Mirror
UK Tabloids Doxxed the 'Hero' Hacker Who Stopped a Global Cyberattack (theoutline.com)
The UK-based security researcher, who "accidentally" halted the spread of the ransomware Wanna Decryptor over the weekend, has been doxxed by UK tabloids. From a report: [...] Journalists have published his name against his will, bringing him unwanted attention and sending a signal to privacy-sensitive researchers that no good deed goes unpunished. The researcher, writing under the username MalwareTechBlog, published a blog post on his personal site with findings about the virus, explaining how it was stopped and what would have to be done to prevent it from coming back. News outlets, including the Daily Mail, The Guardian, and CNN called the anonymous researcher a hero. The researcher was initially responsive to press inquiries. He told reporters that he was 22, lived in the south of England with his parents, and worked for an L.A. security firm. However, he told The Guardian that he wanted to remain anonymous "because it just doesn't make sense to give out my personal information, obviously we're working against bad guys and they're not going to be happy about this." It took about a day for UK papers, including The Mail, The Sun, The Telegraph, and The Mirror, to suss out the researcher's name and publish photos of him, show up at his house, and track down his friends and associates for interviews. "It's caused a fair bit of stress," he told Forbes. "I don't want fame."
Tackle the cause not the symptom.
While the latest anglo-american elections (Brexit, Trump) suggest that the extermination of humankind has some merit ("tackle the cause not the symptom"), I would personally prefer to address the symptom instead. Humans will probably always be gullible, but we could at least teach critical thinking in primary education and alleviate some of this (that would address the symptom, even though the fundamental problem -- flawed human psychology -- will probably persist for the foreseeable future).
But yeah, maybe we should address the root cause, and eradicate Homo Sapiens once and for all. Every other life form on the planet would probably thank us.