Launched recently, Ransomwhere aims to improve the visibility of the ransomware ecosystem.
The security researcher of the information security company Krebs Stamos Group, a student of Stanford University Jack Cable (Jack Cable) launched this week a new site that provides access to a database of past payments to ransomware operators. Cable hopes his personal project will help improve the visibility of the ransomware ecosystem.
The Ransomwhere website allows cyber ransomware victims and cybersecurity experts to add a ransom note, data on the required amount and the bitcoin address to which the victim transferred money to an open database. Victims’ personal or personally identifiable information will not be added to the database. The database will be available for free download from the Ransomwhere site for cybersecurity experts and law enforcement.
The idea behind the site is to create a central system for tracking payments sent to cyber ransomware, allowing for an accurate estimate of the size and profitability of their operations, about which very little is known.
So far, the project relies only on data voluntarily contributed by the cybersecurity community and victims of cyber ransomware, but Cable is also looking for ways to cooperate with companies in the field of information security and blockchain in order to integrate the information they already have about the operators of ransomware and expand the Ransomwhere database with information, which are not currently publicly available and have not been publicly disclosed.
The downside of projects like Ransomwhere is that they are not immune to the introduction of false or fake data. Currently, Cable checks all the information entered himself, but in the future he intends to implement a voting system that will help identify fake information. In addition, the researcher asks the malware specialists to contact him directly, in which case the data will be immediately entered into the database from a trusted source.
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