Unique China-based Ransomware Ditches Crypto for WeChat Payment

[kuhnertdm]

Source

 

A new form of ransomware has infected over 100,000 PCs in China over the last few days. However, instead of doing what most ransomware does and demand payment in the form of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, this one demands payment over the Chinese social media platform WeChat. This typically would be a bad choice on the ransomware developer's side, as WeChat is a lot more traceable than Bitcoin is. In addition, it seems the software itself had some info embedded in it that could lead investigators to the person accepting payment:

 

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Experts from Huorong examining this ransomware string found some details that could lead to identifying and apprehending the malware author.

They discovered a name, a mobile phone number, a QQ account, and an email address that could help police catch the crook. Using the info present in the malware code, the researchers ran a domain lookup and found additional details that connected the dots and possibly leading to the identification of the author.

Because this was so poorly executed and easily traceable, some are speculating that this may either all be pointing to some random account (so the developer doesn't get paid - They were only doing it to cause havoc), or to the account of someone they want to frame. The account has already been closed.

[AngryBeaver]

3 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

猪。

Oink Oink

[w1nger1]

They even have knock off version of ransomware, LOL!

[BananaInSandals]

The most obvious reason to me for not using BitCoin (or other cryto) is that the Chinese has banned all crytocurrency-related stuff (officially anyways) a while ago. So if they ask for BitCoin, they'd have to sell/exchange overseas, which makes it as traceable as WeChat pay. WeChat pay could be set up quite easily without putting any personal info at risk. Afaik, there are still ways to get a sim card without showing ID card (officially, China requires all sim sellers to ask for ID card when selling sims). With the phone number, ppl can register WeChat pay easily and use money entered into the account to buy stuff in shops. I've seen jewelry store (as in store that sell gold jewelry and whatnot) accepting WeChat pay so spending the money and then reselling the product to cleanse the money isn't as hard as you think.

[williamcll]

Considering it's Wechat I'm pretty sure they will find the offender pretty quickly.

 

Also, funfact: Chinese anti-viruses suck.