The CyBUr Smart Morning News Update
Oct 8, 2026 · 20 min · 12 segments
Articles mentioned in this podcast: 1\)…
This first one, I guess you'll read a lot of it, but this is from the register.com. Simon Charwood ransomware fixer claimed he could decrypt files, allegedly defrauded clients.
Instead, the United States Department of Justice has charged a man with fraud after he allegedly told clients that He could decrypt files locked by ransomware, but actually paid ransoms and seemingly got away with it for years.
The feds alleged that Zohar Penhasi, also known as Zach Silver and Zach Green, ran a Florida company called Monster Cloud that advertised ransomware victims not to pay because they had a way to recover encrypted data.
Quote, the charges related to Penhasi's claimed ability to decrypt ransomware without paying cyber criminals purportedly using proprietary tools and advanced decryption techniques on behalf of distressed business owners who came to his company, according to the DOJ press release.
allegedly used a portion of his client's fees to pay off the ransomware attackers and then kept the rest off and extracting a substantial markup.
In one case, Penhasi allegedly charged his client $150,000 and then paid the ransom, which was only $8,200.
The scheme allegedly worked so well that Penhasi charged clients more than $19 million and he paid more than $8 million in ransom payments.
The DOJ's indictments and MonsterCloud's website mentions its use of advanced decryption techniques and cutting-edge technology, of which they had none of it.
She'll probably do five years and some probation and play a fine and all that kind of stuff.
Because let's be honest, cybercrime and cyber-related crimes, the penalties don't quite meet the crime for the most part.
They were defrauded and the government will get the money with the fine and things like that.
You'll probably see more of this, but the key part of it is if you get hit with ransomware, there are companies that legitimately can help you with recovery with negotiating with ransomware actors, but we've seen stories like this in the past with companies that claim to be working with the ransomware group to decrypt your files, and they were part of the ransomware group.
This first one, I guess you'll read a lot of it, but this is from the register.com. Simon Charwood ransomware fixer claimed he could decrypt files, allegedly defrauded clients.
Instead, the United States Department of Justice has charged a man with fraud after he allegedly told clients that He could decrypt files locked by ransomware, but actually paid ransoms and seemingly got away with it for years.
The feds alleged that Zohar Penhasi, also known as Zach Silver and Zach Green, ran a Florida company called Monster Cloud that advertised ransomware victims not to pay because they had a way to recover encrypted data.
Quote, the charges related to Penhasi's claimed ability to decrypt ransomware without paying cyber criminals purportedly using proprietary tools and advanced decryption techniques on behalf of distressed business owners who came to his company, according to the DOJ press release.
allegedly used a portion of his client's fees to pay off the ransomware attackers and then kept the rest off and extracting a substantial markup.
In one case, Penhasi allegedly charged his client $150,000 and then paid the ransom, which was only $8,200.
The scheme allegedly worked so well that Penhasi charged clients more than $19 million and he paid more than $8 million in ransom payments.
The DOJ's indictments and MonsterCloud's website mentions its use of advanced decryption techniques and cutting-edge technology, of which they had none of it.
She'll probably do five years and some probation and play a fine and all that kind of stuff.
Because let's be honest, cybercrime and cyber-related crimes, the penalties don't quite meet the crime for the most part.
They were defrauded and the government will get the money with the fine and things like that.
You'll probably see more of this, but the key part of it is if you get hit with ransomware, there are companies that legitimately can help you with recovery with negotiating with ransomware actors, but we've seen stories like this in the past with companies that claim to be working with the ransomware group to decrypt your files, and they were part of the ransomware group.
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