Apparently one of the Ransomware developers has almost grown a conscience.  His or her name is Tox and Tox claims on Pastebin.com that his / her “brilliant idea” has become “too hot for me to handle” so he / she’s getting out of the Ransomware business, although Tox is willing to sell his / her platform so another cyber criminal can continue extorting money from people.

The business for sale message was posted June 3rd, 2015 with the additional information that, “In a few days I’ll ask you a bitcoin address in the case somebody pays…I’ll forward you your part.”

Tox clearly thinks very highly of him or herself, “Some have said I think out of the box, others said…[I] just developed the worse ransomware ever. …this would have been the greatest virus ever.”  Tox should learn that a little humility goes a long way.  On the other hand the lack of humility plays humorously off Tox’s assertion, “I don’t want to be a criminal.”  Then perhaps stop bragging about your exploits – just sayin’.

Depending on jurisdiction Tox could be found guilty of a number crimes, including  wire fraud, computer fraud, extortion, computer intrusion, numerous state laws, and more, not to mention that if caught individuals and businesses could sue him or her for their losses.

I say depending on jurisdiction, because unlike the very poorly done CSI Cyber (don’t get me started) most cyber criminals are not domestic, but are rather from foreign locations.  There are indicators that as hard as Tox has tried he / she is not a natural American English speaker.

Tox also asserts, “(sorry to ruin your expectations) I’m not a team of hard core hackers. I’m just a teenager student.”  This assertion lacks the ring of authenticity, first because while Tox may not want to be a criminal he / she has bragged about committing acts which are by definition criminal, and we find it hard to believe Tox is so stupid as to not realize that so why would he / she provide actual personal, real life information.  A person sophisticated enough to create this program isn’t stupid, chances are far better that the claim to repent, to not want to be a criminal and to be a teenage student are all an attempt to throw the law enforcement, who is obviously already looking into Tox,off his / her trail.

In any case Tox’s ransomware is likely to sell and we’ll bring you updates to this strange case as they become available.

[whohit]Tox[/whohit]