Security Researchers Puzzled by Demise of TeslaCrypt Ransomware
In early May, Igor Kabina, a researcher with security firm ESET, noticed that the group behind the third most prevalent ransomware operation, TeslaCrypt, had seemingly taken a breather.
Following the April release of version 4 of their data-encryption malware, the group's development efforts had slowed. Wondering if the group was closing up shop, Kabina pretended to be a victim and used their support service to ask if they would release their master key.
"On April 27th, a version that later turned out to be the very last version of TeslaCrypt was compiled," he stated in a company interview. "Soon after that, I noticed that the people behind it had stopped spreading this version and that all the links they used were slowly dying. So I tried my luck, pretended to be one of their victims and asked them if they would be so kind as to release all four of the private keys they had been using since TeslaCrypt started."
