back to article Cisco busts ransomware rodent targeting bitcoin, cryptocoin subreddits

The eager-but-pwned net menace behind the JigSaw ransomware has been found targeting Reddit users with multiple malware in a bid to snare victims. The VXer is thought to be behind three ransomware variants, including the well-known Jigsaw which sports iconography from the Saw film, each lurking behind websites that foist the …

  1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    where did this "actor" thing come from? A Tom Clancy novel?

  2. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    dodgy online oubliettes

    "an avoidance of dodgy online oubliettes"

    ^This

    best defense is common sense

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: dodgy online oubliettes

      Agreed. Unfortunately, contrary to real life, on the Internet you can't look ahead to see that the alley on the left is dark and foreboding, while the street ahead is well-lit and inviting.

      On the Internet you go into the alley without noticing, then find out you shouldn't have after being clobbered and pwned. Sometimes a while after.

      It takes a bit of experience to know that that link is not one you want to click on. Would be nice if links would have a security notice attached to them - something Google is more or less trying to do.

  3. toughluck

    This fluffy text is very fluffy.

    [i]A single actor could be responsible for multiple distinct variants in an attempt to maximize their profits, or as they refine their tactics in an attempt to maximize the amount of revenue they collect from victims.[/i]

    How do the two parts of the sentence differ? Does having multiple variants lower costs, thus maximizing profits, or does it increase revenue, which basically means the same as the second half of the sentence?

    If it reduces cost, how does it accomplish that?

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