TeslaCrypt Ransomware Maker Shuts Down, Releases Master Key (techcrunch.com) 49
An anonymous reader writes: The TeslaCrypt ransomware makers have officially closed down shop and apologized for all the damage they have caused in the past. TeslaCrypt upset a lot of gamers as it would locate and encrypt video games on your Windows PC. With the recent decision to shut down, anti-ransomware researchers have been able to create a fool-proof decryption app called TeslaDecoder (Link is a direct download). Now, many of the hard drives rendered useless by the malware are available to use, and almost every file can be accessed using the unlock system. "TeslaCrypt's website was on the Tor network and now consists of a master key and an apology," writes TechCrunch.
In other newd (Score:5, Funny)
Re: In other news (Score:2)
Vigilante Justice (Score:5, Insightful)
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Or they got an "offer you can't refuse".
Yeah, I believe that (Score:2)
Some faith in humanity restored? (Score:5, Interesting)
..but they didn't turn themselves in, and they didn't return their ill-gotten gains, so they're still scumbags
Sure. But how often do you get any sort of an apology like this? With all the ugly shit going on all over the world, isn't it a little refreshing that someone actually says they're sorry and makes at least some token amends for their actions? Small consolation or not.
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A sincere apology would be accompanied with an offer to make restitution to those who were harmed, or else pay the appropriate penalties for past wrongdoing.
Any so-called apology without at least one of these things is nothing of the sort.
Otherwise it comes across as they are only sorry that they won't continue doing it.
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And insurance money is just created from thin air, right?
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Yes.
Though, admittedly, its actually the bank that creates money out of thin air.
Learn and understand fractional reserve banking, the crash of 2008, and why it happened, then you'll not make such ignorant statements.
Yes, banks literally create money out of thin air, and its one of the driving factors of inflation. Thanks Fractional Reserve banking and fiat currency! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!
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Wait, what? Criminals with a conscience?
There are a lot of criminals out there with a conscience, many also have moral boundaries they won't cross. A murder might be a murderer and enjoy it, but they won't target people under a certain age for example. It's also one of the reasons why in most countries that child molesters and rapists are put into segregation wings. The other criminals in there are more likely to kill them for what they've done. Not only for the prestige of doing it, but because even the other criminals find their actions rep
Re:how are people getting infected? (Score:5, Insightful)
The currently most popular way is you getting a mail entitled "invoice" or "last warning" from some party that you might have actually ordered something from (Amazon, EBay, Paypal...), with a file invoice.pdf.exe attached.
And since Windows STILL in its unending wisdom does NOT show file extensions in the default setting for some godforsaken reason, and since you can freely choose what icons you want your executable file to display... you get the idea, I'm sure.
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And since Windows STILL in its unending wisdom does NOT show file extensions in the default setting for some godforsaken reason
The hiding of extensions still stands as one of the WORST, most misguided things they ever did. And there is no reason for it, none, zero, zip, nada.
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Similar to how they mark shortcuts with a special icon, OSes should start doing the same for executable files. This would help prevent the attack where the icon resource for the executable is the Adobe Reader icon or the "zip folder" icon.
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Then again, using any part of the file name to denote MIME type is brain dead. Microsoft's problem is they only hid extensions instead of fixing the OS to handle files properly.
Re: how are people getting infected? (Score:1)
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Please explain how hiding the extension is treating someone with kid gloves? Does it really confuse Joe Randomuser so terribly that his game's name is now game.exe? He had to learn a lot of things to use that computer. This is a mouse, to open something double click with the left button... no, the OTHER left, idiot...
You think it would really be asking too much from Joe to remember "and hey, that .exe means that this is the program. Your letters are .doc and the thing with the many little cells is .xls". I
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No reason? The reason is that because that's an implementation detail. There should be other ways for the user to determine what is and what isn't an executable. The filename is supposed to be the user's domain.
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There should be other ways for the user to determine what is and what isn't an executable. The filename is supposed to be the user's domain.
Yeah, there should be but in Windows there isn't- at least not any safe or easy way. The file extension was a simple, useful way to let users know what a file was, regardless of its icon (which is easily faked or spoofed).
This is how you get users to run shit like PictureOfMyCutePuppy.js or GirlWithBigBoobs.gif.exe, because Windows shows these files as "PictureOfMyCutePuppy" and "GirlWithBigBoobs.gif".
Hiding the file extension was idiocy at the highest level.
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Yes, I understand that..
OS X uses extensions (even though pre-OS X relied on file types and creators) too.. But they're hidden by default, and the OS warns you when trying to change extensions, make double-extensions etc.. (but the extension isn't used for executable-ness, because of the underlying UNIX permissions for that).
I still maintain that Windows was probably _trying_ to do something similar, in hiding the "geeky" stuff, but for some reason didn't add the safety net/extra UI to prevent these confus
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Thunderbird (which I use) shows the extensions
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Different sources, and the teslacrypt makers don't really have to care: The malware world has become a real economy with specialisation, and everyone provides different services. One can do really good email phising attacks, the other one has hacked a service and sells off the databases. Some sell access to hacked computers, and others write and sell ransomware.
So the vector which gets the malware onto the computers is as different as the customers of the ransomware: it may come to you via an email attachme
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Have you heard of drive-by infection through ad networks? It's not a new thing. It's at least 9 years old, as a concept, by my direct knowledge (when Investor Village got hit with it).
Yes, software just /does/ randomly appear on the web. Various people have railed against the use of executable code (Javascript, Action Script (flash), etc) on the web (korean web pages are awash in VBS), to no avail.
I came from the same background as you. There is even malware that runs just fine in wine on linux.
You can
Re:how are people getting infected? (Score:5, Funny)
At the hosts file? How do you block malware at the hosts file? Is there someone on Slashdot who could tell me more about hosts files?
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Must resist posting:
You're a COW! You APK Host File Engine using COWS MOO! YOU COWS!
I think it would go something like that.
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How do you block malware at the hosts file?
By sending the ad networks to 0.0.0.0.
https://github.com/StevenBlack... [github.com]
That's the one I use.
--
BMO
Why do I have the feeling it's not altruism? (Score:5, Interesting)
It smells more like someone came to their door and said "Dude. Listen. This is our biz. We do the ransomware racket on this planet. We encrypt people's stuff and they pay us. You will now close shop and if we notice that any bitcoin that was supposed to go to us goes to you, well, your kidneys are worth a pretty bitcoin too".
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Re:Why do I have the feeling it's not altruism? (Score:5, Funny)
The lead developer's mom found out what he was doing and had a stern talking to him.
Apology (Score:2)
To whoever it may concern:
We hunted down and killed your children. We did it slowly and painfully unless you paid our rasom of course.
Reflecting on this a bit, we decided that maybe it wan't that nice of us to do that. So we're making it all up to everyone with a big "I'm sorry."
Glad we got everythiing straightened out. And again, sorry about your kids (can't you see how sorry we are?).
This was a painful note for us to write. However, we are pretty sure we'll never attempt to do something like this agai