58 
Hacker YamaTough has published Symantec’s pcAnywhere’s source code, the program which is used by users and companies to access personal computers remotely. The publication follows a £30,000 extortion attempt that was made public last night.
After entering Symantec’s network and grabbing pcAnywhere and Norton Antivirus source code, hacker YamaTough told the company that their software contained backdoors that allow governments to spy on individuals and companies. According to the email exchange, he also said that he was going to publish these facts and the source code unless Symantec paid him $50,000 (£30,000).
Following that threat, Symantec contacted the FBI. Their agents then posed as Symantec employees, trying to gather proof of the extortion. The email exchange showing the conversation between YamaTough—who claims to be associated with Anonymous and AntiSec—and the FBI was published last night. This was YamaTough last message:
“Since no code yet being released and our email communication wasn’t also released we give you 10 minutes to decide which way you go after that two of your codes fly to the moon PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus totaling 2350MB in size (rar) 10 minutes if no reply from you we consider it a START this time we’ve made mirrors so it will be hard for you to get rid of it.”
He has completed the first part of this threat, publishing the 1.27GB of source code from pcAnywhere on Pirate Bay.
I like when any hacker publishes hidden truths and denounces backdoors that everyone should know about. Asking for money not to tell this information, however, is not only hypocritical and criminal, but not cool at all. This is not fighting for anyone’s rights. This is just trying to get money easily. [Pirate Bay via Computer World]
Something tells me the real AntiSec/Anonymous crew might have become very interested in this individual in the last 48 hours. I hope YamaTough has covered his/her tracks.
Retracting the above – looks like there is more depth to this story than meets the eye!
Yep, no point taking the ethical stand on the governments accessing back doors then trying to extort money, show some dignity and £30k – they may have taken him seriously if he asked for a cool million. He gives hackers a bad name.
But also is it a big deal if governments have back doors to spy on you if they think you are up to no good? Considering they can just as well drag you from your bed in the night and question you down the station while they trash your place – and if you are in America and suspected of terrorism they will also torture you for information.
Dr. Evil: Gentlemen, I have a plan. It’s called blackmail. Symantec are a very big [quote fingers gesture]software[/quote fingers gesture] company that make [quote fingers gesture]antivirus software[/quote fingers gesture]. We steal the source code and we hold the company ransom for… [little finger in mouth]THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!!![/little finger in mouth]
I’m all for hacking for a worthy cause but this is just plain pathetic.
Are all of you completely out of whack? This is corporate extortion and shouldn’t really be encouraged. Furthermore, when you’re negotiating for stolen goods like this, do you really think that the source code is worth $1m to Symantec? Really?
Either Yama knows what he’s doing and is going to them first to get a quick buck or is simply just trolling them.