Hangzhou Cracks Major Ransomware Case: Leveraging ChatGPT to Optimize the Program

On December 28th, it was learned from the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau in Zhejiang Province that the cyber police in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou recently cracked a major ransomware case. The members of the criminal gang all have qualifications related to network security and utilized ChatGPT for program optimization during the commission of their crimes.

On November 20th, the Shangcheng Internet Police received a report from a company in their jurisdiction stating that their servers had been attacked by ransomware, resulting in the inability to operate their systems normally. The perpetrators demanded 20,000 USDT as ransom. The police immediately formed a technical task force to conduct an investigation. The special investigation team meticulously examined the attacked servers, extracted the Trojan program for analysis, and conducted multidimensional assessments on the virtual currency addresses used by the suspects for extortion. As a result, they successfully identified two criminal suspects.

On November 30th, the task force successfully captured Han and Qi in Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The next day, two other accomplices, Li and Hao, were arrested in Beijing. With this, all four criminal suspects of the gang have been apprehended.

The gang consists of four individuals, all of whom have qualifications in cybersecurity and have worked for large-scale technology companies. They are responsible for various tasks, including writing ransomware versions, optimizing programs using ChatGPT, conducting vulnerability scans, penetrating systems to gain access privileges, implanting ransomware, and carrying out extortion crimes.

Ransomware attacks are one of the hacker’s criminal methods closely related to the daily production and life of Internet users and businesses. Hackers spread ransomware through email, instant messaging tools, and other means to encrypt user files, disrupt computer functions, expose or delete sensitive data as a threat, and force users to pay a ransom in order to carry out extortion.

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