The hacker or a group of hackers behind the Petya.A virus, for the first time since the attack began to act and now extort $ 256 thousand for decryption of files.
Their first activity was noticed in Motherboard.
It is reported that the unknown have devastated the bitcoin purse, where by this time $ 10 thousand was accumulated (initially the virus extorted for decryption of files for $ 300,
But those who paid, did not receive the keys). The amount was transferred to another purse, writes ain.ua.
Then an unknown person, acting on behalf of the creators of the virus, posted an appeal to all victims, in which he extorts 100 bitcoins (about $ 256,000) for decrypting files (but not boot disks).
In this case, the message does not specify a purse,
To which you need to transfer money, but there is a link to the chat in a darknet where users can contact the hacker (or hackers).
The publication was contacted in chatrum with one of the alleged authors of Petya, and quotes his words, according to which the amount is so high, since the key is suitable for "decryption of all computers."
Then the journalist was offered to decrypt one file as a test. The hackers transferred one of the encrypted files, but they have not received a reply yet.
French expert on infosafety, the head of Comae Technologies, Matt Suish believes that hackers simply "troll journalists."
In his opinion, they just want to confuse the public by convincing everyone,
That Petya is still a crypto virus, and not a virus-wiper (whose goal is to destroy information). The expert himself is sure of the opposite.
Recall, June 27, Ukrainian institutions were the victims of a large-scale cyber attack, conducted with the help of the virus Petya.A.
Hacker attacks were aimed at objects of critical information infrastructure of power generating and power supply companies, transport facilities, a number of banking institutions, telecommunications companies. The virus was attacked by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
A powerful hacker attack began with Ukraine, and then occurred in 64 other countries.
Experts called the program M.E. Doc, used in accounting.
The SSU (Security Service of Ukraine) said that the purpose of a large-scale hacker attack was destabilization of the situation in Ukraine.