back to article New Ransoc extortionists hunt for actual child abuse material

Hackers have unleashed a strain of scammer that activates on compromised computers when it encounters filenames containing strings that have been associated with child abuse clips and images. Ransoc kicks in when it finds potential "evidence" of child abuse material or media files downloaded via torrents on the targeted …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is this news, or a Black Mirror synopsis ?

    1. Spotswood

      Haha yes. First thing that sprang to my mind only after having watched that episode last week!

  2. Little Mouse

    Just when you thought they couldn't sink any lower.

    Profiteering from child abuse? Just. wow.

    I don't imagine, legally speaking, that this makes these scumbags complicit, but still, I do hope this comes back to haunt them in every way possible.

    1. yossarianuk

      Re: Just when you thought they couldn't sink any lower.

      However if it is just searching for strings in file names there are going to be many false positives.

      An e-book of the book Lolita for example

      1. LaeMing
        Happy

        Re: Just when you thought they couldn't sink any lower.

        Or your comment in the web cache, even.

      2. weebs

        Re: Just when you thought they couldn't sink any lower.

        Everyone reading this thread is now a target. Thanks guy!

  3. 0laf

    From the ransomware guys it's a pretty safe process. The ransomware 'victim' is hardly going to go to the police or seek help from anyone.

    A nasty side being that these guys must have made a study of the images out there to come up with the searches.

    But it must be a fairly small target. One would hope.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "But it must be a fairly small target. One would hope."

      I thought the same, is it that they are so engaged in the field they assume others are too or is there really a significant enough number of people out there with images to target?

      Pizzagate research material maybe.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "But it must be a fairly small target. One would hope."

      It can be made larger. Just upload some "evidence".

  4. Cyber Pantalaimon

    reminds me of that recent episode of black mirror...

  5. Oldfogey

    Easy

    To catch these idiots, departments responsible for doing so only need to create a load of files with "suspicious" filenames (they will know from thier work what these should be), and make sure their machines are open to attack - perhaps by surfing some dodgy, but perhaps not illegal, sites. Then track the payment.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Easy

      I was thinking something similar, but then I remembered we are talking about the Plod here...

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