PewDiePie is in the news, and indeed, it’s for the wrong reason once more. This time after his “alleged” fan or fans purportedly discharged a ransomware with a note that reads “Subscribe to PewDiePie”.
As indicated by The Independent, the ransomware named PewCrypt locks individuals from getting to their information and the maker guarantees that they would not get it back until PewDiePie’s YouTube account gets 100 million subscribers.It is hazy how the ransomware is conveyed or what number of unfortunate casualties it has asserted up until this point.
PewDiePie is as of now in a stiff fight with Indian music channel T-Series to be the most followed channel on YouTube, with the latter in the lead at the moment.
“If T-Series beats PewDiePie the private key will be deleted and your files gone forever”, the ransom note threatens.
Prior this week, cybersecurity firm Emsisoft discharged its own decryption tool for PewCrypt, enabling influenced unfortunate casualties to unlock their information. On its website, Emsisoft describes PewCrypt as a “Java-based ransomware that uses AES and RSA to encrypt files, while adding the extension .PewCrypt”.
“Using the author’s decryption would require that people trust the person who initially infected them to not further infect them with more malware,” the article cites Michael Gillespie, a scientist at Emsisoft, as saying.
This isn’t the first time PewDiePie’s fans have pulled an extreme stunt to keep the Swedish vlogger as the most prominent YouTuber, and ultimately win the senseless fight against T-Series.
A year ago, vandals hacked into the Wall Street Journal website with a message of help for the vlogger, and others even controlled a large number of printers compelling them to print messages requesting that individuals to subscribe to PewDiePie’s channel.
Prior this month, a World War II memorial in New York was tagged with “Subscribe to PewDiePie”, the very articulation expressed by the shooter who killed 50 individuals at the Christchurch, New Zealand mosques shooting. Both acts were condemned publicly by the vlogger.