Bitcoin Forum

I just read that there is a new kind of ransomware called "Popcorn Time", not related to the torrent client, that demands payment in Bitcoin. If you do not want to pay, you have the option to send a link to other people and if at least 2 of them install the ransomware and make the payment, the keys will be given to you to decrypt your files.

The interesting part is the victims become attackers themselves turning it into a self sustaining "collaboration" of different people all in the interest of obtaining the keys to unlock their files.

I believe this will have a positive effect on the price of Bitcoin if it infects enough computers with Bitcoin demands reaching over $1m worth of ransoms.

https://www.wired.com/2016/12/popcorn-time-ransomware/

This may increase demand of bitcoin and have positive impact on price of bitcoin but this is criminal offense which bitcoin was never intended to support. We don't need this types of negative use cases for bitcoin just to increase marketcap.

I know how it feels to get affected by ransomeware which ask for 1000$+ worth of bitcoin.  >:(

Well this is certainly a new and very interesting way to for spreading ransomware,I can only say that I'm not surprised with this approach.Imagine that you get infected and to get decrypt key you only need to infect two person,they probably count on that all people are more or less have at least two or more enemies that would be happy to infect with ransomware.Now only the question remains whether they pay or not.

I personally do not think that this may affect the price of BTC,and in any case would not be good for something like this to be responsible for the price increase.Ransomware can bring only bad public perception of BTC.

Can you not just install it in a vm on your own machine two times? How do people even get malware. I've never had any malware that I know of.

Those two installation should pay ransom for the referral to get the decryption key. If you keep downloading files from unknown source/link or even if you download some pdf file from spam emails in your laptop you can easily get affected by malware. It's hard to decrypt the files when you get attacked by ransomeware, either you have to pay ransom or you have to forget about getting your files back.

Its a bad exposure for bitcoin. Bitcoin can be use for any criminal acts like this one. What do you think what will happen next? Ofcourse the victims of this ransomware will put the blame to bitcoin. Since there is no way to trace the hacker because bitcoin is anonimous. This is bad publicity for bitcoin.

In a bad way, that's actually kind of hilarious to be honest. I'm surprised that things like this haven't been developed sooner than this.

I'm expecting that IT people are going to find ways around this via fake or virtual machines and have them as recipients for stuff like this, but you never know. I'm just taking a grasp at the concept and thinking of a way around it.

Do you not get it? Criminal activities and illegal, underground markets are the perfect playground of Bitcoin as a form of payment. Where you stand and what you think on what should be does not matter and will not matter. The marketcap will increase because of the growing use of Bitcoin in illegal acts. If you believe it is "bad" that Bitcoin's marketcap is increasing because of criminal activities then sell all your coins and leave. But one thing you should not be is a hypocrite.

Get over it. Even if there was good publicity for Bitcoin, ordinary people will have no use for it. What will they use it for? To buy coffee in Star Bucks? Their credit card or cash works fine. There is no need to use Bitcoin for that. If you want to buy drugs on the internet, that is a different story. You will need Bitcoin for that. Do you get my point?

Hmm... This is an extremely interesting way for ransomware to propagate. Kind of reminds me of drug addicts ensnaring new victims to ensure that they get their snuff for free.
I don't think this will have an impact on the price of bitcoin. Even if a lot of people buy bitcoins to pay the ransom, these bitcoins will eventually be dumped (after sufficient mixing, of course) by the hackers.

We heard a lot stories about ransomware lately that asking to pay with the bitcoin currency. I think people should not pay and instead remove the ransomware from the computer, if they pay, hackers will continue to make money this way.

The best ally against them is to take the security of your computer seriously ;)

And backups. Never forget about dem backups. Store at least two USB external drives, that are spanning six monthes apart.

Ransomware problem i came to know only when one of my customer laptop data got locked and when he showed me the problem and when i saw the ransomware i was not knowing till then what is the problem, i thought of some virus but when i googled it then i came to know about this type of virus used to hack the computer and then asking ransom to open the files of that computer. My customer actually used tor browser to browse something and on that basis he downloaded some exe and got this problem.

Luckily he was not so much worthy datas for him so the we just crashed the harddisk partition and reloaded with new operating system. But when now knowing that this is new type of ransomware i am really getting pissed. But it is due to the lack of the users fault of downloading some exe which offers some very good offers and then they end up like this.

You just think of bitcoin price, yes i want bitcoin to the moon, but this way is only benefit one party. "Ordinary people" will blame for this, they make sell wall, the price itself free fall and this way is only harm bitcoin itself, just a quick profit.

Bitcoin use for as illegal activity is already reportedly spread few years ago, if you see silk road case, bitcoin has fallen although it's just slightly.

Although bitcoin can't reach at least 20% population of earth, people nowadays stole a glance to bitcoin.

Wake up. Bitcoin and the illegal criminal markets were made for each other. Not only that but ISIS terrorists and others will start using Bitcoin to move value with as little friction as possible. I can foresee that there will be a need for better tumbling services in the near future because we will all need it if you are not even participating in the dark markets. Kidnap for ransom groups will also love Bitcoin because it is easier to get value.

We have not seen the last of it because the future of Bitcoin for criminals is really bright. You can say what you want but there will be nothing stopping it. It is the way to the future for Bitcoin.

What an interesting way for disseminating a virus instead of the infection spreading without the knowledge of the user the hacker includes the victim in the process of spreading the virus, I don’t agree with it, and it opens the victim to some legal issues if they decide to spread the virus in cooperation with the hacker, but it is a very smart thing to do.

You should have another read of the OP, it say that the 2 infected machines must install and pay the ransom for them to release the keys to you which i personally think is a little rough, if you are a enough of a prick to send 2 ransomware links to other people you shouldn't have to wait for them to pay so you can get your keys, infecting them should be enough.

There have been groups estimated to be making up to a few million dollars a month, though, so thats a lot of Bitcoins being purchased by the vidtims.
Unfortunately, things like ransomware and kids buying drugs on the darknet are the first things most people hear about Bitcoin.
Although some people will pay the ransom, most just lose their files. The ones that pay are probably left with a bad impression of Bitcoin.
Overall the volume being generated is not worth the negative connotations and press generated.

I've seen the suggestions that you just run a few virtual machines and have them act as the two things you use to "infect" for you to get your files back, and I'm not sure why something like this wouldn't work. Is it just whenever you are the first person to get the ransomware that this option is available? If so, that could end up screwing 3 people over if the others cannot pay.

That is because the infected people have to pay for you to get your files back. It is not just for the first person who has been infected by the ransomware.
It is kind of a ponzi/ multiple marketing scheme. If you bring in victims, you profit (by not having to pay for your files to get decrypted).

    It's not first time I read about ransomware but I freaked when I read that if you have not any money to pay them then you must be a copartner with this group infecting others. Maybe this is a new policy to cover their tracks or some kind of their ethics when they launch their malware code.