Extortionist hacker demands cryptocurrency from Ukrainian Energy Ministry in 10 hours

Another reminder of the dangerousness of modern hackers has emerged in Ukraine: the country’s Energy Ministry website has been encrypted by a malicious coder and the message present on mev.gov.ua contains the countdown clock. After it stops, the hacker promises to delete the whole content the website had.

Notably, the hacker’s origin is clearly not an English-speaking country. “The files will be delete on 0:06:49:14” (counter at the press time, initially the limit was 10 hours) indicates that the miscreant has the knowledge of the chosen language which can be called questionable at best. “And we will send unlock key to you” without any article further demonstrates that the mother tongue of the hacker does not have articles. Ukraine is currently in the state of war at its eastern regions, and the hackers may easily favor the opposite side. However, this is only a theory.

The reaction of the Ukrainian officials is unknown at the press time, but they must be aware of this situation. The mentioned payment (0.1 BTC) will not necessarily make the hackers give back the files, so it’s only a matter of the competence of cybersecurity experts in this state.

The ransomware tools made hackers serious players in the field of cyberspace terrorism, as witnessed by the example of WannaCry and other attacks. This trend is only beginning and likely will continue in the following decade.

Image courtesy of samcook