This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

by Nicole Perlroth

Russian railroads and banks, Germany’s railway, French automaker Renault, Indian airlines, four thousand universities in China, Spain’s largest telecom, Telefonica, Hitachi and Nissan in Japan, the Japanese police, a hospital in Taiwan, movie theater chains in South Korea, nearly every gas station run by PetroChina, China’s state owned oil company, and, in the United States, FedEx and small electrical utilities scattered around the country—were all held hostage by a red screen with a ticking countdown clock demanding $300 in ransom to decrypt their data. If they didn’t pay in three days, victims were told, the ransom would double. In seven days their data would be deleted for good. “Your important files are encrypted,” the ransom note read. “Maybe you are busy looking for a way to recover your files, but do not waste your time. Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service.”