Using Distributed Computing To Thwart Ransomware 361
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The folks at Kaspersky labs are turning to distributed computing to factor the RSA key used by the GPcode virus to encrypt people's files and hold them for ransom. There are two 1024-bit RSA keys to break, which should require a network of about 15 million modern computers to spend a year per key factoring them. Unfortunately, there appear to be no vulnerabilities in the virus' use of RSA, unlike some previous cases. Perhaps more interestingly, there's some debate over whether people should bother cracking it. After all, what if they were trying to trick us into factoring the key for a root signing authority? Besides, there's a more direct method of breaking the encryption: track down the people who wrote the virus and force them to talk."
track down the people who wrote the virus and for (Score:4, Funny)
Damn it (Score:4, Funny)
If only I hadn't erased Jack Bauer's cell from my contact list after the last season...
Make them talk? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:5, Funny)
Way ahead of you. I went into IT security years ago. It is a gold mine. You can basically sell snakeoil and people will kill each other to buy it from you.
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:3, Funny)
It will be absolutely nothing more than a box filled with paperwork. After filling out said paperwork, the client is guaranteed paper "rights" to be "free" and "protected" with said freedoms and protections guaranteed by the pieces of paper, and through no action or knowledge of his own. The client thus receives all the benefits without any of the actual risks of actually BEING free, or the hardships of actually BEING safe. Some have derided my product lines as "security theater" or "vaporware" but they are merely upset because I beat them to market with such a brilliant idea.
Patents pending.
Re:Make them talk? (Score:5, Funny)
Talk about motivation!
Re:That all depends ... (Score:2, Funny)
Interbank Data Recovery Services (Score:5, Funny)
Fortunately, we had Interbank Data Recovery Services. And Interbank does more than just acquire the decryption key.
That's because Interbank vows to find out who sent you the ransom and hunt them down like animals. Like filthy, dirty animals. That's the Interbank difference. See, I don't care how Interbank's secret police get things done. I just care that they get things done. For us.
Plus, because we'd enrolled in their Premiere Membership program, Interbank also hunted down friends and relatives of the guy who had encrypted our data, dragged them from their beds in the middle of the night, and set fire to their homes.
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Force them to talk? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Damn it (Score:3, Funny)
If only I hadn't erased Jack Bauer's cell from my contact list after the last season...
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:4, Funny)
Make another virus (Score:2, Funny)
2. Encrypt his/her data with a similar algorithm plus a key logger.
3. The keylogger phones home with the key the perpetrator used to decrypt his/her data.
4. Profit!
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That all depends ... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, I do: as long as it's not the government doing the compelling.
Just once it'd be fun to hear that the local mafia don's PC got infected because his wife wanted cute smileys, and that the local prosecutor is frustrated by the lack of direct evidence linking the don to what they found down by the river.
Re:Seems rather futile.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Most Likely to Not Use it and to Pay. (Score:4, Funny)
Enterprise-level backup apps are almost always 3rd-party, not "some kind of unreliable M$ thing". Any serious solution also has a means to restore to bare metal, so in effect you need no OS at all to do this.
(and when was the last time anybody kept any current work on a floppy? Cripes - 1992 called and they want their backup devices back).
Re:1024 bits is big (Score:1, Funny)
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:5, Funny)
> Psh... backups? I restore my data from a parallel universe, where I didn't get hit by a virus in the first place.
K dkd that, but kt turns out they use a slkghtly dkfferent alphabet kn that unkverse.
Re:Die! Die! Die! (Score:3, Funny)
You should probably get the private key from them first.
Re:Interbank Data Recovery Services (Score:3, Funny)
I found the encryption sequence! (Score:2, Funny)
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Make them talk? (Score:3, Funny)
But you have some really odd fetishes, I gotta tell ya that.