A hacker who was negotiating a ransom for stolen source code to a Symantec product released the data via peer-to-peer networks on Tuesday after negotiations fell through. The code is for security vendor Symantec’s pcAnywhere remote access software. Symantec had last month warned pcAnywhere users to observe best security practices and told them they might have to disable the application. The company launched its own investigation and called in law enforcement.
The hacker, or the FBI in this case? First off, this is like a 411 scam baiter. You know, the people that see how long they can string out the morons trying to trick them into sending them money, and how many dumb things they can get them to do in the mean time.
First - To hold a hostage you need a "tangle" and "unique" entity. This isn't a movie. No one sends the original disk, cut up, in an envelope, to someone, as proof they destroyed it. Hell, you can't even tell if its the 2nd, or 2,000th copy of the same files, or disk.
Second - Because you can't tell, if some one has in fact been willing to send this guy money, and enough of it to matter, he would have been sitting on a beach some place, his money redirected some place they couldn't find it, while half the planet was acquiring copies of the stuff he claimed he would, "destroy the only copies of", over what ever P2P networks haven't closed down, or been targeted for take down.
So, again, either one, or both have to be complete idiots to try this sort of thing. And, more to the point, the whole idea of "holding code hostage" would be the equivalent, in something like the Star Wars universe, of holding one storm trooper hostage, on the theory that it would cause problems for the entire clone army manufacturing going on at Kamino. No one would give a flying F about one clone, or copy, nor would any sane, rational, or at least not completely stupid, person would imagine that getting rid of the copy/clone you know someone has would prevent them, somehow, retroactively, from making thousands of others.
Author fails to mention this was code from the 2006 edition that is no longer in use. Obsolete and discontinued. Thus making this not even news worthy.
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Anon Lets Fly With Symantec Code After Ransom Talks Collapse
Posted by: Richard Adhikari February 7, 2012 01:45 PMA hacker who was negotiating a ransom for stolen source code to a Symantec product released the data via peer-to-peer networks on Tuesday after negotiations fell through. The code is for security vendor Symantec’s pcAnywhere remote access software. Symantec had last month warned pcAnywhere users to observe best security practices and told them they might have to disable the application. The company launched its own investigation and called in law enforcement.
First - To hold a hostage you need a "tangle" and "unique" entity. This isn't a movie. No one sends the original disk, cut up, in an envelope, to someone, as proof they destroyed it. Hell, you can't even tell if its the 2nd, or 2,000th copy of the same files, or disk.
Second - Because you can't tell, if some one has in fact been willing to send this guy money, and enough of it to matter, he would have been sitting on a beach some place, his money redirected some place they couldn't find it, while half the planet was acquiring copies of the stuff he claimed he would, "destroy the only copies of", over what ever P2P networks haven't closed down, or been targeted for take down.
So, again, either one, or both have to be complete idiots to try this sort of thing. And, more to the point, the whole idea of "holding code hostage" would be the equivalent, in something like the Star Wars universe, of holding one storm trooper hostage, on the theory that it would cause problems for the entire clone army manufacturing going on at Kamino. No one would give a flying F about one clone, or copy, nor would any sane, rational, or at least not completely stupid, person would imagine that getting rid of the copy/clone you know someone has would prevent them, somehow, retroactively, from making thousands of others.