Like many things in the dark world of cyber crime, the experience of internal formula is rare. And very few people want to talk about it. But when a criminal gang recently made a proposal to me, it was found that hackers could use those working in an organization. But recently I had a unique and disturbing experience. I came to know how a person working in an organization can be used for hacking. If you are ready, we will give you 15% of whatever ransom will be found in exchange for giving you access to your computer. “This message was suddenly sent to me by someone named Syndicate on an encrypted chat app called ‘Signal’.
I did not know who he was, but I understood what he wanted. I was proposed that if I help these cyber criminals reach the BBC system with the help of my laptop, they would give me a part of the income. They can reach the BBC system through my laptop and steal data or install malicious software and take BBC hostage for ransom. In return he gives me a secret part. I had heard of such incidents. In fact, a few days before this spam message, there was news from Brazil that an IT employee was allegedly arrested for selling his login information to hackers. According to the police, a person suffered a loss of US $ 1 million. I started further conversations with the syndicate after consulting a senior editor of BBC.
Actually I was eager to see how the culprits do these suspicious deals with a potentially trusted employee. That too at a time when cyber attacks around the world are getting faster and are disturbing everyday life. During the conversation, Syndicate changed its name to ‘Sin’. I told Sean that I was interested in his proposal, but I wanted to know how all this would happen. He told that if I give him my login information and safety code, he will hack the BBC and then blackmail the company for ransom in bitcoin. And I will get some part of that payment. Sin then increased the earlier proposal by 15%.
“We don’t know how much BBC wants to pay from you. If we take one percent of the total revenue of BBC, you are ready to take 25%.” You never have to work again. “Sin estimated that if his team successfully breaks the BBC system, they can ask for a ransom of millions. The BBC has not publicly stated whether he will pay hackers or not, but law enforcement agencies advise not to pay in such cases. Still, hackers continue to be offered.
Sin said that I can get crores of rupees. He insisted, “We will delete this chat so that there is no mark.” The hacker claimed that by contacting the internal sources of the company, it has already achieved great success in many cyber attacks. He gave the example of two hacked companies this year where such deals took place. One of these was the British Health Service Company and an American emergency services. Sin said, “You will be surprised how many employees are willing to give us access.” Sin described himself as a “Reach Out Manager” of a cyber crime gang called Medusa and claimed that he was the only English -speaking member of the gang. Medusa is a ransomware operation. Any criminal can join them and hack any organization using this platform.
