I get calls on this all the time. 99.999% of the time it is spyware. I've worked on about four legitimate hacks since 93.
----- Original Message ----- From: That One Guy /sarcasm To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2015 11:10 AM Subject: [AFMUG] hackers/hacking, meh http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/04/06/tewksbury-police-pay-bitcoin-ransom-hackers/PkcE1GBTOfU52p31F9FM5L/story.html This type of fluff article irritates me. That abuse of the term hacking/hacker is comparable to the abuse of the term engineer. "my facebook got hacked!!" no it didnt, you left your device signed in or you followed a phishing link, you werent hacked, your ignorance was exploited with zero knowledge that you even exist "a hacker encrypted my data" no, in all likelyhood, a script kiddie out there altered code from an existing ransomeware package to become the beneficiary of your ignorance in opening suspect attachments and profited by your inability to follow the simple instruction:back that shit up. no "hackers involved" In terms of technical prowess, and both the criminal and "white hat" environment, "hack" and "hacker" used to garner some respect, now the terms are so misused they have no value. This is just going to leave me very irritated the rest of the day -- If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team.
