PewDiePie hackers might permanently lock users’ files if T-Series wins
PewDiePie, YouTube / PYMNTS.com / T-SeriesYouTuber Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg has seen support from across the globe in his ongoing battle against Bollywood label T-Series – most notably, from hackers.
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While a few pro-PewDiePie hackers have infiltrated printers, Smart TVs, and even Chromecasts in an attempt to boost his subscriber count, more recent offenders may be taking the race too far.
According to investigative reports from ZDNet and Tubefilter, two separate hackers have created ransomware that secretly lock users’ files until they subscribe to PewDiePie’s channel.
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Hackers famously infiltrated a series of printers over Wi-Fi, asking users to subscribe to PewDiePie in light of his battle with T-Series.One of the viruses, simply named ‘PewDiePie Ransomware,’ does not contain “crucial encryption keys” – meaning that even the program’s creator would be unable to unlock users’ files, should their computer become infected.
While this initial virus began spreading in December 2018, another ransomware program has taken hold more recently in March 2019.
"PewDiePie" ransomware sample: https://t.co/enxLkVXQJp
It's ShellLocker.
And looking at that targeted extension, probably just a joke or something…
:thinking_face:@BleepinComputer @demonslay335 pic.twitter.com/avFgMrcdyY— MalwareHunterTeam (@malwrhunterteam) December 17, 2018
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Dubbed ‘PewCrypt,’ the malware will continue to lock users’ files until PewDiePie reaches his 100 million subscriber goal, even after they subscribe.
While ‘PewCrypt’ contains an encryption key and is fully reversible, there is an unfortunate catch; should T-Series reach the 100 million milestone before PewDiePie, the program will delete the key, thus locking users’ information for good.
I made this whilst learning java :joyful:I hope I didn't cause to much of an issue for anyone. Here is the decryption tool: https://t.co/2hkUIsLRxv its command line based. Keep up to good work
— __JustMe__ (@JustMe79194181) February 25, 2019
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The creator of ‘PewCrypt’ later released a statement following the virus’s spread, stating that the malware wasn’t made maliciously – and even gave out instructions on how to reverse the program in a cheeky Tweet shortly thereafter.
PewDiePie’s race with T-Series continues to grow more and more intense, after the label surpassed Kjellberg a number of times in late March.
Despite this development, PewDiePie continues to hold his top spot on YouTube, thanks to his dedicated fanbase – including the hackers.
