PewDiePie Fan Released PewCrypt Ransomware To Increase His Idol's Subscribers

You may have never watched his video, but you have certainly heard of PewDiePie, a YouTuber who always ranked on the top in the number of subscribers on this video-sharing platform. Recently, a ransomware with the "Subscribe to PewDiePie" note was released by a self-proclaimed fan of the Swedish guy.

The Independent reported that PewCrypt ransomware will block access to users' data on their devices. It claims, if PewDiePie's YouTube channel doesn't reach 100 million subscribers, they won't be able to retrieve the data. The threat in ransomware indicates that all user data and private keys will be lost if the T-Series has the number of subscribers passed from PewDiePie.

Hackers want to launch a ransomware attack, as usual, they will trick users to click on links or download files, and then the virus will be installed on the user's device and encrypt their data. It often forces users to give money to it to solve the data encrypted, otherwise, the necessary and important data will be permanently inaccessible or deleted. However, this ransomware developer does not require money but it requires the number of subscribers to PewDiePie's YouTube channel.

Michael Gillespie, a researcher at cybersecurity company Emsisoft, said:

Recently, PewDiePie's YouTube channel has slipped to second in the world in terms of the number of subscribers with 91.8 million subscribers. In the forefront is the T-Series, a channel from India with 91.9 million subscribers in YouTube platform. Because of that, his fans have been constantly looking for ways to call for more subscribers of his channel and it seems that it is gradually over the limit when it affects privacy and work of everyone else.