勒索软件行业的爱恨情仇 | 经济学人文化

2022-10-28 02:10

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Culture | Cybercrime

网络犯罪

英文部分选自经济学人20221022文化版块

Culture | Cybercrime

网络犯罪

The ransomware business is complicated, ruthless and growing fast

复杂无情而又不断壮大的勒索软件行业

Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden have written a useful guide to the subject

蕾妮·达德利和丹尼尔·戈登就这一问题写了一本实用指南

On July 16th 2019 Teiranni Kidd, heavily pregnant, was admitted to hospital in Alabama. Unbeknown to her, the hospital had been hit with a ransomware attack—a malicious program had scrambled its computers, and the attackers were demanding money to restore them. With its systems down, medics were forced to rely on pen and paper to get their jobs done. In a subsequent lawsuit Ms Kidd alleges that, because of this, nobody noticed her daughter’s birth was going badly. The baby was eventually born with severe brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen during the delivery, and died nine months later.

2019年7月16日，即将临盆的特安妮·基德（Teiranni Kidd）住进了阿拉巴马州的一家医院。她不知道的是，这家医院遭到了勒索软件的攻击——医院电脑遭遇了恶意程序的干扰，攻击者声称得用钱才能使电脑恢复正常。由于电脑系统关闭，医疗人员被迫用纸笔手写的方式来维持工作。基德女士提起诉讼，声称由于此次事件，无人留意到在分娩过程中，她的女儿发生了缺氧并引发严重脑损伤，结果于九个月后夭折。

Over the past decade ransomware attacks have spread like knotweed. Alabama’s hospitals are not the only ones to have been affected. When Britain’s National Health Service was hit in 2017 more than a third of the country’s hospital trusts were compromised. In 2021 a big American oil pipeline was crippled, leading to a declaration of emergency in 17 states and Washington, DC. Train services, ports and even entire cities have been affected, as have millions of ordinary people who have seen family photographs, work projects and private documents held hostage by attackers.

过去十年里，勒索软件的攻击犹如虎杖（一种以顽强生长能力著称的外来入侵植物）般蔓延开来。阿拉巴马州的医院并非唯一受害对象。2017年，英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）也未能幸免，当时英国超过三分之一的医院信托基金受创。2021年，美国一条大型输油管线遭到攻击，这导致美国17个州和华盛顿特区宣布进入紧急状态。铁路交通、港口，甚至整座城市都受到过攻击；数百万普通民众也成了受害者，他们的家庭照片、办公文件和私人资料都被攻击者劫持了。

注释：

2021年5月7日美国输油管道公司Colonial Pipeline遭Darkside勒索软件攻击，导致东海岸液体燃料停止运营，该公司在5月13日支付500万美元赎金，以获取解密工具恢复系统运行。随后，执法机构查封Darkside团伙的基础设施，并追回大部分赎金。

Though the general idea is easy to grasp—criminals encrypt the target’s files, then ask for money to decrypt them again—the nuts and bolts of cybercrime are often baffling to the uninitiated. Renee Dudleyand Daniel Golden, a pair of journalists, have written a good introduction to the subject. They focus as much on people as on the computers. Their book is named after a group of volunteers who try to fight back against hackers.

罪犯们将受害人的文件加密，然后向其索要金钱作为解锁条件，这听起来很容易理解，但是网络犯罪的具体细节对于不谙此道的门外汉来说就像天书一般。对此，两位记者蕾妮·达德利（Renee Dudley）和丹尼尔·戈登（Daniel Golden）在他们的新书中做出了详细的介绍。该书在关注电脑技术的同时也同样关注了“人”这一方面，为读者了解这一领域提供了很好的指南。他们的新书以一个努力对抗黑客的志愿者群体命名。

Ransomware makes use of cryptography, the same mathematical technique that protects credit-card data and instant messages from prying eyes as they are transmitted across the internet. Done properly, files scrambled by ransomware are unrecoverable unless you pay the hackers for a long alphanumeric key. But programming is only rarely done perfectly, and almost all software is full of bugs. Attackers exploit them to infect machines; ransomware code, in turn, often contains faults. The ransomware-hunters can sometimes find those chinks in its digital armour, allowing victims to retrieve their files without paying.

勒索软件利用了密码学这一数学技术，该技术也用于信用卡数据和即时讯息的保护，防止其在互联网传播途中遭他人窃取。如果黑客操作得当，被勒索软件黑过的文件很难恢复，除非向黑客付钱以换取长串的数字字母秘钥来解密。但是编程工作很难做到完美无瑕，几乎所有软件都会出现各种各样的漏洞。黑客们正是利用这些漏洞来感染你的电脑，但是同理，勒索软件密码也存在漏洞。即使勒索软件穿着“数字装甲”，对抗黑客的人有时能够发现其中的裂缝，帮助受害者们不用付钱也能恢复被黑的文件。

Many of the team members are “white-hat” hackers (ie, ethical hackers). Their reasons for fighting back include relish of the technical challenge and a strong sense of justice. They cannot always help, but when they can, they make a point of refusing payment for their services—though they sometimes express exasperation at the ingratitude of some of the people they assist.

这些人大多数属于“白帽黑客”，也就是讲道德的黑客。他们之所以这样做，一来享受攻破技术难题的快感，同时也是强烈的正义感使然。虽然他们并不是每次都能帮上忙，但他们在帮上忙时会主动拒绝收费。当然，他们有时碰到那些不知感恩的被害者时也会被气得火冒三丈。

Having access to those at the sharp end provides the authors with some fascinating anecdotes. Pricked by his conscience, a remorseful hacker contacts a member of the team to offer decryption keys for nothing. Other gang members make contact to undermine rival gangs or pursue vendettas, tipping off the researchers to weaknesses in their competitors’ software.

与那些直面对抗勒索软件的人接触，给新书的两位作者提供了不少令人着迷的奇闻异事。一名深受良心谴责的黑客自觉懊悔，他联系了团队的一名成员，主动免费提供解密密钥。或是为了打击对手，或是为了报血海深仇，其他一些黑客团伙的成员也主动联系研究团队，向研究人员透露竞争对手软件的漏洞。

It is still unclear where the ransomware story will end. High-profile raids and rising ransom demands have persuaded governments to take the threat seriously. Shortly after the oil-pipeline attack the gang behind it shut down, citing pressure from American authorities.

目前仍不清楚勒索软件的恶行何时方能终止。明目张胆的网络攻击和不断攀升的赎金要求已经迫使政府严肃对待这种威胁。输油管道攻击案发生后不久，其背后的团伙迫于来自美国当局的压力，已经停止运转。

But other factors are boosting the industry, not hindering it. By paying out to victims, insurance firms inflate ransom demands. Companies have sprung up to smooth the process of paying the ransoms, which are often demanded in cryptocurrency. That helps victims recover files—and reassures the criminals that more victims will pay in future. Even the work of ransomware-hunters puts pressure on the crooks to refine their software, pushing them to eliminate bugs and make it bulletproof. The ransomware business is complicated, ruthless and growing fast. Those looking for a guide should start here.

但也存在一些因素，不但不能遏制该行业甚至还促进了行业的发展壮大。由于保险公司会向受害者支付赔偿金，赎金的金额也水涨船高。由于赎金通常要求以加密货币的方式支付，融通赎金支付过程的公司如雨后春笋般出现。这有助于受害者找回被黑文件，但也让犯罪分子相信以后会有更多的受害者支付赎金。甚至反勒索软件人员的工作在给黑客们带来压力的同时，竟然促使他们改进软件、修复漏洞，努力做到软件固若金汤。勒索软件行业复杂而又残酷无情，并且发展迅速。那些想要了解该行业的人可以以此书作为入门指南。

翻译组：

Jack Jan，实践出真知

Collin，男，崇拜科比的一枚小翻译

Trista，女，虽然我是无业游民，但是我并没有骄傲

校对组：

Lv行者，不爱名牌和旅游的伪文青

Very，男，电气民工，经济学人资浅爱好者

Harold，工作打牌读书足球不可兼得，我偏全要

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