Topic: [2019-10-15] Sodinokibi Ransomware Earns Hacker $287K Bitcoin (Read 200 times)

Same shit different smell...

Do you remember when Bitcoin was first introduced to the public, and it was published as a new crypto-currency that was solely used in the dark web.

It was pretty obvious for anyone who paid attention that money laundering/committing crime on a blockchain that had a public ledger for the transactions was just not a good idea. But the media still chose to do this

Using Bitcoin might reduce their profits, because it's harder for people to buy it instead of just sending PayPal or money from their payment card that they already have, but it also makes it much easier for criminals to receive money - Bitcoin accounts can't be shut down and they can achieve anonymity if they know what they are doing.


That's not exactly hacking, you are referring to the so-called sextortion, which is a form of spam with social engineering. In ransomwere there's no emails that with Bitcoin addresses.

Seconded to this and i cant deny that desperation is one of the things where people being pushed on making crimes.Instead on using it up on a good way they would rather choose out the other path since it can possibly able to hook up hundreds or even millions of dollars on a short span of time.These news isnt really new anymore because this already happens back in the past where cryptocurrency market wasnt still made.

Yes, but poorer countries have more desperate people, and desperation brings out the worst in some people. It's also likely that it's easier to launder stolen money in poorer countries with weaker policing.

Does it really matter about the standing of said countries when it comes to the economic state? There were lots of some good hackers in different nationalities globally.
So, it isnt really that precise to point out that these fellas live out on poor countries but out of desparation on making money then we can really presume out.
The thing you have said was the sad reality where these hacks will continue as long there would be people/companies who doesnt really care about making back-ups.

Ransomware-as-a-service? To think that criminals couldn't get more business minded than this. The developers of  Sodinokibi are actually smart by just taking percentage of the earnings rather than doing the act itself. They can manage to receive cuts from different times in a matter of days without even trying to hack them one by one. This is indeed a criminal enterprise in the making and the authorities needs to act fast before they target an even larger company that could seriously affect their economy.

Exactly. Nothing at all to do with bitcoin other than the fact that it was used as a mode of payment. Does it make it easier for hackers or ransomware attackers to nett their victims? No. Does bitcoin make the attacks more frequent? No.

In fact, a few days ago, read something about hackers changing to alts because asking for Bitcoin apparently dumps their ransom email into spam to their victim never even sees it!

There is nothing surprising in this, at all

Hasn't these sorta things been around for years, possibly even in the early 2000's? I remember there was software like this which basically penetrated the early version of computers and they where forced to pay via other fiat payments methods then.

Looks like these sorta schemes are growing and we are seeing an increase in money stolen from this, there's definelty going to be a lot more cases of these, it's actually fairly easy to get ransomware on a phone/laptop from my research.

Some of them are from undeveloped or developing countries with few opportunities, but even by developed country standards unfortunately it seems there's a lot of money in this 'business' to be made. It will last and remain profitable as long as there are enough people and companies with poor backup and security practices.

I am sure these criminals are fantastic in what they are doing and only those guys who are also involved with the same activity can be able to track them. Going after these guys must be a difficult and expensive exercise that is why we don't hear many of them are eventually caught. Anyway, this is one of the many risks we have to face when we are online. Our part is always be careful and do some necessary preventive measures, if they are needed.





I guess we are seeing a good evolution here. People behind this thing are possessing higher than normal intelligence and they can even be genius in some aspect...sadly they are using their skills and talents contributing evils to our society. Right now, these people see a bigger opportunity with the use of cryptocurrency. I feel lucky to never been another victim of these guys.



Backing up is really a good strategy to not be a victim of ransomware and those who possess sensitive data must be doing this all the time. Data can be costly to recover once blocked or lost. According to the source above, the mode of payment was Bitcoin which can be surprising to us because there remains the possibility of tracing with this coin unlike maybe Monero or Dash. Well, it would be nice if they can be tracked, caught and punished for the crime they committed.

Personally in order to avoid any data losses or issues I have a 6TB sata HDD that I store new files on every month or so, and then hide that away in a different room. I personally do it with a sata-based HDD so no regular person with a laptop would be able to access it, and also it's pretty cheap.

I'm a bit confused though, was this ransomware asking for BTC payment or other crypto-currencies, I would assume they'd pick something like XMR or dash for safety, not Bitcoin.

Ransomware asking for bitcoins are older than that, e.g. Cryptolocker was popular in 2013. Before that, ransomware asking for ukash/moneypak/etc. codes have been around for years.

Another kind of ransomware. These low life criminals are getting more and more crafty. These kind of ransomware have been extorting people since 2017. And yet, no one get caught from this crime. This is absolutely devastating to small scale businesses who are the victims of this virus. Also give negative mark on Bitcoin reputation.

Yeah, if we will just pretty much do regular back-ups and then not clicking on suspicious links, there could be less victims here.

@coolcoinz - that so called porn malware or whatever they call it contains a secret crypto mining injection to any hardware that it can inject.

(https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/10/14/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-sextortion-masturbation-blackmail-monero-save-yourself-malware/)

As suggested above never download anything from your main computer and make sure to install the anti-malware/antivirus in it. Create a backup through thumb drive and save any necessary files and data just in case something goes wrong to your main computer.

Or as suggested use Linux, that is way better than windows.

Direct to the point because you wouldnt fall out to pay up that ransome if you do know that you do have back-up files on your sleeves

but it isnt really that necessary to have it as long you do know on how maintain up security with your own pc desktop.Dont download
anything online carelessly because these are one of the main reasons why people do fall into this kind of problem because of carelessness.

Backing up is always been suggested and a primary feature but people arent really utilizing it well.

This one works at least, as opposed to that email saying they enabled your webcam and filmed you for some time while watching porn.
I got that last week and checked the address they wanted me to send the ransom to. I think they wanted 0.1 and the address already contained 3 BTC of ransom money paid by poor clueless victims.
The most basic safety method is to use a "burner" PC to access the Internet on a daily basis. You open email there, have all the basic games and programs, and use another safe computer for work. It's very hard to hack or infect a computer that you don't open emails on and don't download anything via your web browser.
You can also use a NAS server to send your important files to and always have copies there.

Basically backups. You just buy a big enough external HDD and from time to time copy there all the data you care about.
The frequency of backups usually depends on how often the important data changes.
Also an USB stick to recover your Windows (including the serial) may help.

Or use Linux.

Just one of the few ways anyone with the talent, time and hard work can get into and earn some outrageous sums of money in such a short of time. Ransomware is here to stay as the stakes are getting higher with the use of cryptocurrency as the tool to demand payment from the victims.

I love to hear more stories of victims turning the table against the attackers: "Last week we saw how a ransomware victim who paid Bitcoin to unlock his files took vengeance on his attackers, by hacking them right back." Maybe starting a hacker vs. hacker war can be a good idea, after all.

What are the effective ways we can avoid becoming victims of ransomware?