Fergie's Tech Blog

UK Police Abandon 'Monumental Task' of Tracing Hacker

Via OUT-LAW.com.

Manchester Police will not pursue the hacker who held a UK woman to ransom after moving her computer files into a locked folder.

Filenappers used a virus, called Arhiveus, to infect Helen Barrow's computer and lock all her files. The attackers then instructed Barrow, a student nurse, to buy drugs from an online outlet. Only then, said the hackers, would she be sent a password which would release her files.

Barrow managed to get hold of a working password and rescue her data, but Manchester Police say that the case is closed. "In terms of trying to find who did this it would be a monument task to have to do," said a spokeswoman for Manchester Police. "This is not an investigation that is continuing."

posted by Fergie @ 6/01/2006 08:02:00 AM