From tripwire.com
Someone gets infected by ransomware, and then they pay the ransom. The victim then licks their wounds and hopefully learns something from the experience.
And that’s what happened to Tobias Frömel, a German developer and web designer who found himself paying a Bitcoin ransom of 670 Euros (US $735) after his QNAP NAS drive was hit by the Muhstik ransomware.
However, Frömel didn’t just put down the whole unpleasant episode to experience, vow to better protect his devices and employ a more reliable backup regime in future.
No, Frömel decided to hack the very people responsible for the attack.
After decrypting his own data, Frömel (who also calls himself “battleck” online) analyzed the ransomware that had infected his NAS drive, determined how it worked, “hacked back” and stole the criminal’s “whole database with keys.”