14 DAY TRIAL // This week, we learned that a 36-year-old man from Romania killed his 4-year-old son and committed suicide after a piece of ransomware told him he must pay a massive fine or face 11 years in prison. This is just one incident, but there are many other stories that could have ended badly.
The Romanian man got his computer infected with “police ransomware” after visiting some adult sites. It appears the malware told him to pay a large amount of money or go to prison for his “crimes.” The man thought the alert really came from the police.
In a suicide note to his wife, the man explained that he didn’t want to go to prison and he didn’t want to leave debts to his son. He decided to hang himself and his 4-year-old in the living room.
This is one of the most shocking cybercrime-related stories I’ve heard so far, but there are others that could have ended in a similar manner.
For instance, in 2011, we heard the story of a New Zealand lawyer who got tricked by Nigerian scammers into paying them close to a million dollars. The scammers promised him tens of millions of dollars, but kept asking him to pay all sorts of fees that were allegedly needed to cover the transaction.
The man ended up taking a $500,000 (€350,000) loan from a bank and $300,000 (€210,000) from the accounts of a trust that he chaired.
Imagine how he must have felt after he learned that he gave that much money to fraudsters and there was no way of getting it back. He could have thought about committing suicide. After all, there have been numerous cases of individuals committing suicide, including the executives of major companies, because of money problems or because they were investigated by authorities.
Another recent story that could have had an unfortunate outcome is the case of the threat-making malware from Japan. A computer malware posted all sorts of serious threats on the Internet from infected computers. The police arrested a number of individuals believing that they were behind the messages, only to later learn that it was the work of a clever piece of malware.
This is another scenario in which things could have ended badly. Imagine the police raiding an individual who they believe is planning on planting a bomb on an airplane or kill the members of the royal family. The suspect just installed a piece of malware on his computer and he suddenly becomes a major threat.
Japanese police have demonstrated in this case that they still have a lot to learn about the way the Internet works. I assume a raid is conducted differently when a hacker is targeted than when they’re going after someone whose house might be packed with explosives.
This week, we’ve seen spam emails that tell recipients they have cancer. So, clearly, most cybercriminals don’t think of the consequences of the stories they make. This means that we need to do a better job raising awareness of online threats to make sure everyone knows that the messages from a Nigerian bank president or “the police” are not real.