A WIN FOR THE GOOD HACKERS!

whitehatIt may surprise you to learn that there are actually some good hackers, dedicated to fighting the legions of the criminally minded cyber hooligans hellbent on destroying you, your systems, interrupting your life in any way they can…the BLACK HATS.

The good hackers are called WHITE HATS, using the exact same skills, honed to perfection, for the purpose of good to protect and defend.

It is with great pleasure that I am writing about a WIN for the good guys, who have recently broken one of the most insidious computer attacks ever devised.

RANSOMWARE.

Back in July of last year, you may remember the column I wrote,  “Ransomware ~ From Russia With Love“, about the growing menace of ransomware, correctly called cryptoviral extortion, is an insidious type of MalWare that, as it’s name implies, holds your computer hostage by locking it up, preventing you from using it, stopping you from accessing your data, or any other information on your system, until you pay a “ransom”.

In a united effort, law enforcement agencies worldwide started “OPERATION TOVAR“, attacking the botnet network of between 500,000 to 1 Million infected computers that were spreading the CRYPTOLOCKER RANSOMWARE around.

With the backbone of the malware distribution network broken, the second finishing blow came with the White Hats from the partnership between FOX-IT and FireEye finally recovered the private encryption keys, and reverse engineered the code, resulting in DECRYPTOLOCKER.COM, a website that opens the door for users to recover their content.

This is a battle, an ongoing timeless war between good and evil, one that will continue. It’s nice to know there are many out there fighting for us all.

 

Jacques Redmond

About Jacques Redmond

I'm an I.T. Security Professional, Technology Analyst, Consultant, & Tech Writer Protecting You From Viruses, Malware, Trojans, Hackers, and other Cyber Threats. I enjoy taking complicated subjects, and putting them in a way that's easy for everyone to understand. My site INFORMATIONWARFARE.US gives free advice to combat threats to your system.