Slashdot Mirror


PewCrypt Ransomware Locks Users' Files and Won't Offer a Decryption Key Until - and Unless - PewDiePie's YouTube Channel Beats T-Series To Hit 100M Subscribers (zdnet.com)

The battle between PewDiePie, currently the most subscribed channel on YouTube, and T-Series, an Indian music label, continues to have strange repercussions. In recent months, as T-Series closes in on the gap to beat PewDiePie for the crown of the most subscribers on YouTube, alleged supporters of PewDiePie, in an unusual show of love, have hacked Chromecasts and printers to persuade victims to subscribe to PewDiePie's channel. Now ZDNet reports about a second strain of ransomware that is linked to PewDiePie. From the report: A second one appeared in January, and this was actually a fully functional ransomware strain. Called PewCrypt, this ransomware was coded in Java, and it encrypted users' files in the "proper" way, with a method of recovering files at a later date. The catch --you couldn't buy a decryption key, but instead, victims had to wait until PewDiePie gained over 100 million followers before being allowed to decrypt any of the encrypted files. At the time of writing, PewDiePie had around 90 million fans, meaning any victim would be in for a long wait before they could regain access to any of their files. Making matters worse, if T-Series got to 100 million subscribers before PewDiePie, then PewCrypt would delete the user's encryption key for good, leaving users without a way to recover their data.

While the ransomware was put together as a joke, sadly, it did infect a few users, ZDNet has learned. Its author eventually realized the world of trouble he'd get into if any of those victims filed complaints with authorities, and released the ransomware's source code on GitHub, along with a command-line-based decryption tool.

4 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Into the gaschamber with PewDiePie. by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Ok I give.

    WTF is a "Pewdepie"?

    I"m sure I'd better shout at kids to get off my lawn at this point....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Re:Curiosity by JBMcB · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps I've missed it (and it's a good chance I have as I don't follow him) but I don't recall seeing where he's spoken out about the illegal activities being done in his name (hacking, encrypting, murder, etc)

    You've only scratched the surface. Armed robbery, kidnapping, counterfeiting, extortion, racketeering, stock manipulation, global financial manipulation, tanking currencies, falsifying documents, purposefully accelerating global climate change, drug dealing, redlining, gaslighting, forming destructive cults, cheating on tax returns, election manipulation, writing fraudulent yelp reviews, providing sub-prime mortgages, tearing off mattress tags, driving 1MPH over the speed limit, griefing, trolling, spawnkilling, defacing library books, writing in pen when the instructions say to use pencil...

    The crimes ne'er-do-wells commit in the name of PewDiePie are extensive and astonishing.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  3. Re: Into the gaschamber with PewDiePie. by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    9-11 couldn't have been an inside job. Have you seen the government. It is fucking chaos. I am surprise that anything gets done.

    --
    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
  4. Re:Into the gaschamber with PewDiePie. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not PewDiePie's fault. My kids don't watch his channel, still they are unbearable.