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.

Comments

Re:Sure, here you go

[junglee_iitk]

As someone who subscribed to T-Series - you are part of the problem. PewDiePie's base is the young generation. YOU are the one is out of sync.

He's normalizing and legitimizing the worst aspects of that community.

No buddy, you are. Literally, when you say "angry, bitter, jobless young men" as if that is not a problem or you don't get a sadistic pleasure in it. You DID when you gave your quite consent to far-left.

Eventually a real demagogue will come along and organize them into brown shirts.

If only the jobless young men were crying instead of being angry, help feminists, fight among themselves etc. their condition will improve, isn't it? Come-on! Even you don't believe it you have given consent to these snake-oil solutions being peddled to young boys and men. The gig is up. It is indeed scary that if it goes down, it will go down for everyone.

Re:No he did not

[AmiMoJo]

"Harmless" but that guy who murdered 50 people in Christchurch last week did tell people to subscribe to him on his live stream right before doing it... Because the far right uses people like PewDiePie to get people interested in their ideas even if only as a joke or way to rebel.

This does nicely illustrate the strange doublethink going on right now regarding people like PDP. On the one hand they are harmless, what they say has no effect and is just messing around. On the other hand freedom of speech is absolutely vital because speech is a powerful tool and the most fundamental way we communicate ideas and influence others.