Ransomware Encourages Victims to Subscribe to PewDiePie
PewDiePie’s battle with Bollywood star T-Series has pushed a few of his extra enthusiastic followers to extremes. A gaggle of hackers used printers to advertise their favourite YouTuber final yr, and extra just lately, they hacked their manner into Smart TVs, Chromecasts, and Google Home units. Now, latest stories declare that new strains of ransomware are encouraging customers to subscribe to PewDiePie. The “PewDiePie ransomware” launched final yr did not even hassle to save lots of encryption keys, which suggests no matter person information it focused was gone for good, whereas a brand new pressure that popped up this January runs in Java to make detection harder. However, as an alternative of asking for a ransom, the later program merely presents a hyperlink to PewDiePie’s subscription web page. It claims that public keys will probably be launched if PewDiePie hits 100 million subscribers earlier than T-Series, whereas the person’s information won’t ever see the sunshine of day once more if T-Series hits that mark first. ZDNet says the software program was “put together as a joke,” however nonetheless managed to contaminate a number of customers, and that the code is now publicly accessible on GitHub. Thanks to AceGoober for the tip, and take a look at an illustration of the ransomware under:
Both ransomware strains present the extent of idiocy the competitors for YouTube’s prime spot has reached. While T-Series followers have remained largely quiet most of this time, a portion of PewDiePie’s followers seems to have misplaced their minds and engaged in media stunts bordering on prison habits… The message itself has develop into a meme, and never in a great way.
