#Open ransomwhere software
People don’t seem to realise ransomware is not an anomaly when it comes to functionality, it uses feature like: encryption (SSL, PGP, EFS, bitlocker) and file I/O (every software ever). All of the antivirus vendors are painfully aware that ransomware is now an epidemic with it likely now accounting for the majority of all first world malware infections.
There’s some misconception here that everyone in the AV industry is sat around on their hands like a bunch of politicians debating climate change (“maybe the ransomware will solve itself”, “there’s no conclusive proof that ransomware exists, files have been being encrypted for millions of years”), it’s simply not the case. The problem is that open source ransomware is repeatedly used by criminals who would otherwise lack the capabilities of making their own: it’s essentially like being outraged that the police aren’t doing enough to combat gang violence, so giving guns to all the gangs (even the ones who don’t currently have any).
This isn’t really an argument, more a statement however, it is one of the most commonly used excuses for people posting open source ransomware that I’ve seen. The antivirus industry needs to do more to stop ransomware Is open source ransomware helping improve ransomware detection/prevention, or making it worse?įor a while I’ve been collecting a list of arguments used to justify the posting of open source ransomware (some convincing and some hilariously stupid), which I’m going to evaluate in this article. Trying to prove a point, help me out Twitter. Although the poll wasn’t limited to people working in the antimalware industry, 46% is scarily high. A while back 2sec4u posted a poll asking if people considered open source ransomware helpful to detection and prevention, with 46% voting yes.