NotPetya cyberattack may have been ransomware after all

Image: CHRISTOPHER MINESES/ MASHABLE
NotPetya cyberattack : What Is that ?
The Bitcoin pocketbook controlled by the NotPetya attackers depicted surprising signals of life over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, with nearly $10,000 in paid ransom vanishing from the account. Around the same hour, a meaning purporting to be from the culprits behind the maybe-ransomware attack surfaced requiring 100 bitcoin in exchange for a key they say can open encrypted files.

SEE ALSO: It won't be easy for WannaCry intruders to get their money

At the time of writing, 100 bitcoin is importance approximately $260,000.

"Send me 100 Bitcoins and you are able to get my private key to decrypt any harddisk( except boot saucers ), " spoke the message posted to Pastebin. "See the attached document signed with the key."
NotPetya cyberattack : When it happened
As NotPetya, which first surfaced in Ukraine on June 27, has been shown to damage an infected computer's original boot preserve, the person behind the meaning is only claiming to be able to decrypt specific registers not part organisations. Still, that clevernes could be a godsend for companies struggling to restore lost data, presuming the ransomer is telling the truth.

The new challenge was positioned on July 4, the same day ransom payments determined in the hopes of obtaining decryption keys were moved from the Bitcoin address listed in the initial NotPetya attack to another wallet.
The letter displayed by NotPetya.


Image: SYMANTEC


No new Bitcoin address was rostered for remittances should anyone decide to actually fork over the 100 bitcoin. Nonetheless, a tie supplied to a chatroom to the needs of going in touch with the intruders and probably setting payment.

Motherboard exchanged messages with someone claiming to be one of the hackers, who told the publication the key for sale would "decrypt all computers."

So, should organisation desperate for their data pay up? It's a hard interrogate. Insurance researchers have more or less reached a consensus that the intent behind NotPetya was to damage cyber-infrastructure , not to make money. As such, the calculus for victims is different than it would be with a traditionally bred assemble of ransomware.

Either way, this latest sequence of developments the transfer of funds between Bitcoin billfolds and the new requisition serves to further muddy the waters behind the NotPetya attack. It too shapes one thing clear: The legend of the most recent ransomware scourge to clean countries around the world is not over yet.

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