Japanese authorities arrest 14-year-old for creating Ransomware

A 14-year-old young teen was arrested by Japanese authorities for allegedly creating and spreading ransomware similar to WannaCry. Ransomware is a program that encrypts files on a victim's computer and makes them inaccessible until a decryption key is provided. The victim has to eventually end up paying the ransom to get the decryption key for his or her files.

The presence of malware in recent years

For the last couple of years, Ransomware Malware has grown a lot in the cyber field, but, the WannaCry ransomware was among the biggest cyber attacks so far. It used the NSA's Windows SMB exploits -- dubbed Eternal Blue -- and DoublePulsar to gain unauthorized access to victims' computers. Although the Decryption tool has been released for the #WannaCry ransomware which allows the victim to recover his or her files, the ransomware is still effective on the unpatched version of the Windows system.

Microsoft also released a patch for the SMB remote code execution vulnerability which was being exploited by this ransomware, asking users to patch their computers as soon as possible.

The malware created by the boy looks similar to the WannaCry ransomware, which infected more than 300,000+ computers globally -- including 600 companies from Japan like Hitachi and Nissan.

Why he did it

The arrest of the Young Boy is the first arrest in Japan involving Ransomware-related crime. The authorities explained that the boy, who is a student at a secondary school in Osaka prefecture, made the ransomware to get famous. Although the identity of the boy has not yet been revealed, he admitted to the allegations of creating the ransomware, uploading it to a foreign website, and telling users of the platform to download and use it, according to sources quoted by the #Kyodo news agency.

The boy advertised the website on different social media platforms as well.

The boy learned to code by himself and made the malware in just 3 days on his personal computer, using a free encryption tool to encrypt the files. The ransomware created by the boy has been downloaded more than 100 times and allows the user to encrypt files on a victim's computer and ask for virtual currency as ransom. The boy was discovered online by Japanese police.

The potential criminal charges that the teen could face have not been specified, but it will be interesting to see just how this story develops, and if there will be charges brought against him at a later date.