A Security Researcher Saves 6 Companies From The Ransomware Group, How Come?

Illustration of ransomware (photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - A security researcher managed to save six companies from having to pay their data ransomware to ransomware groups, as security holes were found on sites often used by ransomware gangs.

Vangelis Stykas, a security researcher and head of the technology department at Atropos.ai told TechCrunch that he managed to find vulnerabilities on the web dashboard that are often used by at least three ransomware gangs.

Stykas said the ransomware gang usually hides their identity and operations on the dark web, an anonymous web version that can be accessed through certain browsers.

However, due to errors in encoding and security bugs on the site used by the ransomware gang to extort the victim, Stykas admitted that he could peek inside without having to enter and extract information about each operation.

In some cases, the bug exposes the IP address of leak site servers, which can be used to track their real-world location.

However, he also uses another bug which can eventually open up admin chat history containing decryption keys from the affected company.

He added that of all the companies he had informed, no one had disclosed the security incident to the public, and it was possible that it would reveal the names of the companies in the future.