Скачать или смотреть The CryptoLocker Virus: Encryption, Botnets & the Rise of Modern Ransomware

The cryptolocker virus changed cybercrime forever — here's how it worked and what it means for your backups today.

In this episode of The Backup Wrap-up, I sit down with my co-host Prasanna Malaiyandi and Dr. Mike Saylor to break down the full evolution of ransomware, starting from the days when all you had to worry about was a scary pop-up on your screen.

We're going way back. Back to scareware — those fake messages that told you your computer was compromised when nothing had actually happened. You just had to close the browser and move on with your life. But then things got real. Criminals started using actual encryption — first simple ciphers (think decoder rings), then symmetric encryption, and then the big one: asymmetric encryption with public-private key pairs.

That's where the cryptolocker virus comes in. Dr. Mike Saylor walks us through exactly how CryptoLocker worked, why it spread through fake FedEx emails, how it used the Zeus botnet for distribution, and what made its 2048-bit RSA encryption so hard to beat. We also talk about why the CryptoLocker gang wasn't great at running a criminal business — they didn't cover their tracks, they didn't protect their keys, and within about a year, an international law enforcement effort called Operation Tovar took them down.

But here's the thing: the bad guys learned from the cryptolocker virus and its mistakes. And that's where it gets really interesting. The ransomware that came after took what worked — the asymmetric encryption, the Bitcoin payments, the botnet infrastructure — and built on it. They got better at hiding, better at anonymizing, and eventually they added data exfiltration and double extortion to the playbook. Now they don't just encrypt your data — they steal it and threaten to release it publicly. Some of them are even going after the customers and clients of their victims with triple extortion.
We also talk about how Bitcoin became the payment method of choice for ransomware, why early ransoms were just a couple hundred bucks, and the logistics behind actually getting Bitcoin when you're a panicked individual who's just been ransomed.

And because we can never stay fully on topic, we take a quick detour into the LastPass breach and its connection to data exfiltration, plus a moment of silence for the poor guy who threw away his hard drive with his crypto key and has officially given up looking for it.

If you're in IT, cybersecurity, or you just want to understand how we got from "close your browser" to billion-dollar ransomware enterprises, this one's for you.

Dr. Mike Saylor is the co-author of "Learning Ransomware Response & Recovery" — the book I'm writing with him for O'Reilly.
Chapters:
00:00:00 — Intro
00:01:22 — Welcome and Introductions
00:04:11 — The Three Generations of Ransomware
00:05:01 — Scareware: Fake Attacks That Did Nothing
00:05:42 — Ciphers and Decoder Ring Encryption
00:06:38 — Symmetric Encryption Explained
00:09:25 — Asymmetric (Public-Private Key) Encryption
00:12:46 — Why Asymmetric Encryption Made Ransomware Stronger
00:15:44 — What Was the CryptoLocker Virus?
00:16:25 — Lessons CryptoLocker Taught Victims and Criminals
00:18:03 — Operation Tovar Takes Down CryptoLocker
00:19:54 — Bitcoin, Ransom Amounts, and Getting Paid
00:23:20 — Botnets Explained: Networks of Zombie Computers
00:26:22 — Recap: Three Phases of Ransomware
00:27:09 — Double Extortion and Data Exfiltration
00:28:01 — The LastPass Connection
00:28:47 — The Lost Crypto Hard Drive
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