---
title: "New Virus Steals Your Files Until PewDiePie Gets 100M Subscribers"
description: "Fans of YouTube star PewDiePie have taken to ransomware attacks in order to try and drive up PewDiePie's subscriber count."
date: "2019-03-21"
modified: "2019-03-21"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/ransomware-encrypts-files-pewdiepie"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "cybersecurity"
  - "pewdiepie"
  - "ransomware"
  - "YouTube"
---

# New Virus Steals Your Files Until PewDiePie Gets 100M Subscribers

![Fans of YouTube star PewDiePie have taken to ransomware attacks in order to try and drive up PewDiePie's subscriber count.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ransomware-encrypts-files-pewdiepie.png>)
*\<em\>Image: PewDiePie/YouTube\</em\>*

## Classic Prank

Certain members of YouTube star PewDiePie's fanbase have started infecting people's computers with homemade ransomware, according to a [new investigation](<https://www.zdnet.com/article/pewdiepie-fans-keep-making-junk-ransomware/>) by *ZDNet,* in the ongoing push to get the YouTuber back on top as the channel with the most subscribers in the world.

In the past, mischievous PewDiePie fans have hacked publicly-accessible printers and spammed comments online, urging people to subscribe to the online gamer-turned [controversial YouTube personality](<https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/10/pewdiepie-is-back-making-more-racist-comments/>) — but an actual virus represents a dangerous escalation in similar tactics.

## Slapdash

When a computer gets hit by ransomware, it encrypts the hard disk until you meet the hackers' demands, sort of like a [digital hostage situation](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/newspapers-cyberattack-foreign.md>).

Developing ransomware and calling it a prank, as PewDiePie fans have done, is one thing. But the PewDiePie-inspired ransomware is made so poorly, according to *ZDNet's* analysis, that it's doing permanent damage: Because the authors of the first PewDiePie ransomware failed to save encryption keys, even if victims met the demands, their files were lost for good.

## Second Thoughts

Another ransomware attack holds computers hostage until PewDiePie reached 100 million subscribers on YouTube — and if his rival channel T-Series did so first, the files would be permanently deleted.

The person behind that attack, realizing just how much trouble they could get themselves into after having infected a few computers, [publicly released their code](<https://github.com/000JustMe/PewCrypt>) so people could decrypt their files and move on.

But still, it's unlikely that PewDiePie's fans are about to stop their notoriously obnoxious campaign any time soon.

**READ MORE:** [PewDiePie fans keep making junk ransomware](<https://www.zdnet.com/article/pewdiepie-fans-keep-making-junk-ransomware/>) \[*ZDNet*\]

**More on ransomware:** *[Hackers Are Holding The City of Atlanta Hostage](<https://futurism.com/atlanta-hacking-ransomware-cybersecurity.md>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

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