{"id":57076,"date":"2024-09-11T15:03:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/36323\/When-You-Pay-A-Ransom-And-The-Decryptor-Doesnt-Work.html"},"modified":"2024-09-11T15:03:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:03:47","slug":"when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#8217;t Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For C-suite execs and security leaders, discovering your organization has been breached by network intruders, your critical systems locked up, and your data stolen, and then receiving a ransom demand, is probably the worst day of your professional life.<\/p>\n<p>But it can get even worse, as some execs who had been infected with Hazard ransomware recently found out. After paying the ransom in exchange for a decryptor to restore the encrypted files, the decryptor did not work.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Register<\/em> did not talk to the victim organization in this case \u2013 its executives declined to be interviewed about their experience \u2013 so we don&#8217;t know the specifics.<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"top\" data-raptor=\"condor\" data-xsm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-sm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-md=\",fluid,mpu,\"> <noscript> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/jump?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\" alt> <\/a> <\/noscript> <\/div>\n<p>Still, we assume that coming to the conclusion that the best way out of the situation was to pay the extortionists \u2013&nbsp;for concerns about customers&#8217; and employees&#8217; data privacy, or to bring business operations back online, or to minimize reputational damage, or because there just weren&#8217;t any backups (oops) \u2013 was a pretty painful decision in itself.<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"top\" data-raptor=\"falcon\" data-xmd=\",fluid,mpu,leaderboard,\" data-lg=\",fluid,mpu,leaderboard,\" data-xlg=\",fluid,billboard,superleaderboard,mpu,leaderboard,\" data-xxlg=\",fluid,billboard,superleaderboard,brandwidth,brandimpact,leaderboard,mpu,\"> <noscript> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/jump?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=4&amp;c=44ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=4&amp;c=44ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D426raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt> <\/a> <\/noscript> <\/div>\n<div class=\"adun_eagle_desktop_story_wrapper\">\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"mid\" data-raptor=\"eagle\" data-xxlg=\",mpu,dmpu,\"> <noscript> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/jump?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=3&amp;c=33ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=3&amp;c=33ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt> <\/a> <\/noscript> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But then to pay the criminals and still not be able to recover the files? That&#8217;s excruciating.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ransomware as a whole is extremely stressful for the victim,&#8221; said Mark Lance, ransomware negotiator with GuidePoint Security. &#8220;Now in this circumstance, specifically, where they&#8217;ve made the payment and the decryption tools don&#8217;t work,&#8221; the stress levels ratcheted up several notches.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote\" readability=\"7\">\n<p>We had two that occurred, where the decryption tools didn&#8217;t work, in the span of the week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;In this, and in a lot of situations like this one, they&#8217;re relying heavily on those decryption capabilities working on certain systems so that they can recover operations,&#8221; Lance told <em>The Register<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So the stress substantially increases because they&#8217;re like, &#8216;Hey, we made this large ransom payment amount with established terms that said if we paid we&#8217;re going to get access.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"top\" data-raptor=\"falcon\" data-xsm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-sm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-md=\",fluid,mpu,\"> <noscript> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/jump?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=4&amp;c=44ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=4&amp;c=44ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D426raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt> <\/a> <\/noscript> <\/div>\n<p>After first having no success unscrambling their files, the infected organization obtained an updated version of the decryptor from the criminals, but that wasn&#8217;t working either. A third-party company that had been involved in the ransomware negotiations called in GuidePoint, which first tried the criminals&#8217; &#8220;technical support&#8221; desk and told them that the victim needed a different version of the decryptor.<\/p>\n<p>But instead of providing a tool to unlock the encrypted files, the criminals sent over a renamed version of the previous decryptor. &#8220;And at that point, they went quiet and were no longer communicating with the victim,&#8221; Lance said. &#8220;I think, in this instance, it was probably over the heads of the technical support team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the reason, the org couldn&#8217;t access the locked files, and the Hazard ransomware crew disappeared. Eventually, GuidePoint was able to patch the decryptor binary and then <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.guidepointsecurity.com\/blog\/hazard-ransomware-a-successful-broken-encryptor-story\/\">brute-forced<\/a> 16,777,216 possible values until some crucial missing bytes in the cryptographic process were determined, ultimately producing a working tool for decrypting the files.<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" id=\"story_eagle_xsm_sm_md_xmd_lg_xlg\" data-pos=\"mid\" data-raptor=\"eagle\" data-xsm=\",mpu,dmpu,\" data-sm=\",mpu,dmpu,\" data-md=\",mpu,dmpu,\" data-xmd=\",mpu,dmpu,\" data-lg=\",mpu,dmpu,\" data-xlg=\",mpu,dmpu,\"> <noscript> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/jump?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=3&amp;c=33ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=3&amp;c=33ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt> <\/a> <\/noscript> <\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s a good reminder, however, that paying a ransom isn&#8217;t a guarantee of data recovery.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"crosshead\">What to expect when you&#8217;re decrypting<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;One of our primary tasks is educating the victims on what they can expect and what is going to transpire as part of the ransomware incident,&#8221; Lance explained.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re also always establishing that regardless of anything that is agreed to, you&#8217;re still dealing with criminals \u2013 these are the same people who are extorting you for money. Despite how they love to talk about how they&#8217;re doing you favors, and they have a 100 percent success rate for decryption, you&#8217;re dealing with cyber criminals, so you can&#8217;t trust them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The frequency of instances like this, where the decryptor doesn&#8217;t work, &#8220;ebbs and flows,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>GuidePoint hadn&#8217;t had it happen in months during the ransomware negotiations and incident responses the team had performed, &#8220;but then we had two that occurred, where the decryption tools didn&#8217;t work, in the span of the week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some of the more &#8220;sophisticated&#8221; <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2023\/11\/17\/lockbit_cracks_whip_on_affiliates\/\" rel=\"noopener\">ransomware-as-a-service groups<\/a> have internal technical support teams to perform more advanced troubleshooting. Lance noted his team has seen these crews escalate the problem to the more technically advanced members of the crime gang when things break \u2013 just like a regular, non-criminal IT operation.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2024\/02\/06\/akira_and_8base_new_ransomware_research\/\" rel=\"noopener\">newbies<\/a> and the less sophisticated crews that lack the technical skills or even the reputational concerns \u2013 more about that in a moment \u2013 to even attempt next-level data recovery activities.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the reasons why decryption tools don&#8217;t work vary. In the Hazard ransomware incident, the decryptor had a bug. Sometimes gangs provide a tool for the wrong IT environment, also rendering it useless. Or sometimes they just decide to screw over the victims.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That last situation doesn&#8217;t happen too frequently \u2013&nbsp;this is a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2024\/08\/13\/lockbit_ransomware_stats\/\" rel=\"noopener\">business<\/a> for these crooks, and if they earn a reputation for not decrypting data even after receiving a ransom payment, they aren&#8217;t going to continue making much money off future victims.<\/p>\n<p>All of these factors should be taken into consideration by infected businesses, and they play into the education piece that GuidePoint and other incident responders bring to victims once they&#8217;ve been hit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have made a lot of progress in education and awareness,&#8221; Lance explained. &#8220;People understand that this is not just a security or IT problem, but it is a business problem, and people are seeing the true impacts associated with ransomware.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added that while there used to be more of a stigma attached to disclosing ransomware attacks, &#8220;we&#8217;re seeing more of a trend where people are saying we are being impacted, so let&#8217;s make sure that other people have the opportunity to learn and leverage what we are going through so hopefully they don&#8217;t.&#8221; \u00ae<\/p>\n<p> READ MORE <a href=\"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/36323\/When-You-Pay-A-Ransom-And-The-Decryptor-Doesnt-Work.html\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>READ MORE HERE&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[9707],"class_list":["post-57076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cybersecurity-blogs","tag-headlinehackerprivacymalwarecybercrimedata-lossfraudcryptography"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#039;t Work 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security &amp; Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#039;t Work 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security &amp; Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-11T15:03:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TH Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@threatshub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@threatshub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TH Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TH Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476\"},\"headline\":\"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#8217;t Work\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-11T15:03:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":961,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\\\/gampad\\\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\\\/6978\\\/reg_security\\\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\",\"keywords\":[\"headline,hacker,privacy,malware,cybercrime,data loss,fraud,cryptography\"],\"articleSection\":[\"CyberSecurity Blogs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/\",\"name\":\"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn't Work 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\\\/gampad\\\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\\\/6978\\\/reg_security\\\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-11T15:03:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\\\/gampad\\\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\\\/6978\\\/reg_security\\\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\\\/gampad\\\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\\\/6978\\\/reg_security\\\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"headline,hacker,privacy,malware,cybercrime,data loss,fraud,cryptography\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/tag\\\/headlinehackerprivacymalwarecybercrimedata-lossfraudcryptography\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#8217;t Work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\",\"description\":\"%%focuskw%% Threat Intel \u2013 Threat Intel Services \u2013 CyberIntelligence \u2013 Cyber Threat Intelligence - Threat Intelligence Feeds - Threat Intelligence Reports - CyberSecurity Report \u2013 Cyber Security PDF \u2013 Cybersecurity Trends - Cloud Sandbox \u2013- Threat IntelligencePortal \u2013 Incident Response \u2013 Threat Hunting \u2013 IOC - Yara - Security Operations Center \u2013 SecurityOperation Center \u2013 Security SOC \u2013 SOC Services - Advanced Threat - Threat Detection - TargetedAttack \u2013 APT \u2013 Anti-APT \u2013 Advanced Protection \u2013 Cyber Security Services \u2013 Cybersecurity Services -Threat Intelligence Platform\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"Threatshub.org\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"ThreatsHub.org\",\"alternateName\":\"Threatshub.org\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg\",\"width\":432,\"height\":435,\"caption\":\"ThreatsHub.org\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/threatshub\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476\",\"name\":\"TH Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"TH Author\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn't Work 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","description":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn't Work 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","og_description":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/","og_site_name":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","article_published_time":"2024-09-11T15:03:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"TH Author","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@threatshub","twitter_site":"@threatshub","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"TH Author","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/"},"author":{"name":"TH Author","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476"},"headline":"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#8217;t Work","datePublished":"2024-09-11T15:03:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/"},"wordCount":961,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0","keywords":["headline,hacker,privacy,malware,cybercrime,data loss,fraud,cryptography"],"articleSection":["CyberSecurity Blogs"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/","name":"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn't Work 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0","datePublished":"2024-09-11T15:03:47+00:00","description":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_security\/cybercrime&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=2&amp;c=2ZuJZ4Z2k44SJUfdyObsNAQAAAgA&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/when-you-pay-a-ransom-and-the-decryptor-doesnt-work\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"headline,hacker,privacy,malware,cybercrime,data loss,fraud,cryptography","item":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/tag\/headlinehackerprivacymalwarecybercrimedata-lossfraudcryptography\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"When You Pay A Ransom And The Decryptor Doesn&#8217;t Work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/","name":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","description":"%%focuskw%% Threat Intel \u2013 Threat Intel Services \u2013 CyberIntelligence \u2013 Cyber Threat Intelligence - Threat Intelligence Feeds - Threat Intelligence Reports - CyberSecurity Report \u2013 Cyber Security PDF \u2013 Cybersecurity Trends - Cloud Sandbox \u2013- Threat IntelligencePortal \u2013 Incident Response \u2013 Threat Hunting \u2013 IOC - Yara - Security Operations Center \u2013 SecurityOperation Center \u2013 Security SOC \u2013 SOC Services - Advanced Threat - Threat Detection - TargetedAttack \u2013 APT \u2013 Anti-APT \u2013 Advanced Protection \u2013 Cyber Security Services \u2013 Cybersecurity Services -Threat Intelligence Platform","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Threatshub.org","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"ThreatsHub.org","alternateName":"Threatshub.org","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg","width":432,"height":435,"caption":"ThreatsHub.org"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/threatshub"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476","name":"TH Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"TH Author"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}