back to article Please forgive me, I can't stop robbing you: SamSam ransomware earns handlers $5.9m

The enterprise-focused SamSam ransomware has earned its handlers an estimated $5.9m (£4.5m) since it first appeared in the wild in December 2015. Security software firm Sophos worked with Neutrino to arrive at the estimate, which is based on tracking Bitcoin addresses supplied on ransom notes and sample files. Over the last …

  1. Joe Werner Silver badge
    Coat

    Gah! My eyes!

    Seriously, splines in that graph? They really do convey knowledge about what happens between the data points - which is not available...

    ... the one with Tufte's book in it, please.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Gah! My eyes!

      It's to make it easier for us to interpolate imaginary payments for hypothetical infections.

      "Here we see that in an alternate universe where there was a payment on February 28th, it was for $150K."

      Or perhaps it's so we can imagine what the payment history would sound like, were it played by a musical instrument.1

      1This just reminded me of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Heh.

  2. An0n C0w4rd
    Paris Hilton

    <obligatory sexism>

    quote: "The attacker is very good at covering their tracks and appears to be growing increasingly paranoid (or experienced) as time passes, gradually adding more security features into his tools and websites," Sophos reported.

    Sorry Sophos, but why is it "his tools"? Why could it not be "her tools"? Or "their tools" to be more gender-neutral?

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: <obligatory sexism>

      "Sorry Sophos, but why is it "his tools"? Why could it not be "her tools"? Or "their tools" to be more gender-neutral?"

      You're right, I'd not noticed that. There's a large movement towards descriptive or training materials to refer to "her", "she" for a generic person, etc, but whenever it's something bad happening, it's almost always back to "him", "his" etc.

  3. Alistair
    Joke

    Must be a Canadian hacker.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The only thing that'll look good on him is prison clothing.

  4. Daggerchild Silver badge

    Guilt?

    I'm not entirely sure if people who care about people have a future in this world.

    Where is the predator/prey equilibrium when the predator can invisibly rip the innards out of prey anywhere in the world?

    I've a fiver on the 'legacy' Internet eventually being closed down for a completely regulated and patrolled one. This is basically why we can't have nice things - we aren't nice things.

    And we haven't even reached the predatory AI ransomware stage yet. No I'm not actually kidding.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Re: Guilt?

      > I've a fiver on the 'legacy' Internet eventually being closed down for a completely regulated and patrolled one ..

      There's nothing wrong with the Internet that needs fixing. The defects lay in the crapware connected at either end. I also suspect security on our devices are diluted so as to allow the security people keep an eye on us potential subversives and/or such hacking incidents are allowed precisely so as the surveillance industry can step-up to protect us from the cyber terrorists.

      --

      the only way to be happy is for everyone to be made equal

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Guilt?

        “everyone to be made equal”

        Someone once said, You can’t have socialism without oppression. Great theory, wrong species.

        1. B Bunter

          Re: Guilt?

          Agreed. In the immortal words of Syndrome from the Incredibles "If everyone is super, no one will be" A laudable sentiment that ultimately got him killed. he died mainly because of the way in which he defended his philosophy, but the so called hero's were really the ones that escalated the confrontation simply because they could not deal with the fact that they would no longer be dominant. (this is really just my deliberately obtuse take on the plot because its more fun this way).

          1. Daggerchild Silver badge
            WTF?

            Re: Guilt?

            You've got one nasty case of Internet philosophy poisoning there...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Terminator

    What can save us from this malicious computer ransomware infestation

    Does this run on anything other than Microsoft Windows? I see the only solution being to introduce the death penality for writing malware.

    1. pop_corn

      Re: What can save us from this malicious computer ransomware infestation

      Yeah, because the death penalty has done such a good job of stopping all violent crime in the US hasn't it? Oh, wait...!

      The issue with the death penalty, is no one doing a crime that calls for it (or pretty much any crime) believes at the time that they're going to get caught, so the ultimate sanction, is ultimately useless.

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