
The Impoverished Ransomware Superhero of Normal, Illinois - JZL003
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-ransomware-superhero-of-normal-illinois
======
Pick-A-Hill2019
Sounds like a genuinely nice guy and I hope he gets the financial support he
seems to need right now however something in the article caught my eye - "Then
they [FBI Agents] began requesting lists of IP addresses that had uploaded
files to ID Ransomware, which could help identify victims, as well as ransom
notes and other material."

From the ID Ransomware site - "Any email addresses or BitCoin addresses found
in files uploaded to ID Ransomware may be stored and shared with trusted third
parties or law enforcement. No personally identifiable data is stored." If he
is supplying IP addresses and copies of ransom notes without consent well,
yeah maybe the web site should make it a bit clearer that it's not _just_
email and bitcoin info he shares. A further quote a bit further down reads "He
tips them (the FBI) off, for instance, when a ransom note or extension on a
file uploaded to the site identifies the targeted business." Still, seems like
his heart is in the right place so I'll close with a more positive snippet -
"Gillespie hopes that someday his services will no longer be needed, because
businesses and people will have learned proper cybersecurity. “If the world
had backups, then we wouldn’t have ransomware,” he said."

