First and fore most, I want to start off my comment by stating that I do not like viruses, adware, etc. The people that do this kind of thing should face stiff penalties if proven it was on purpose.
However, every once and a while, someone comes up with an idea, that is just... well, great!
It has been dubbed ransom-ware.
This article from CNN talks about a new attack where hackers broke into a system, and encrypted files. They later came back an demanded $200 for the key to unlock the files. The artilce goes on to say that the FBI scheme appears isolated. Of course, now that it has been reported on CNN, and who knows who else will read it, will now have the idea, and start doing it.
Sometimes I think the news media is just stupid!
This particular attack ended well for the company. Someone was able to crack the encryption without paying for the code, or losing the files. But what they worry about is everything gets better over time. The viruses from years past are minor compared to the ones we have now. These sick people improve on each others work.
This is just wrong, but I can't help but laugh about it.
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