its transactions and account history. Qaiser was running encrypted virtual machines on his Macbook Pro with both Mac and Windows operating systems. He could not be tried earlier because he was sectioned under the UK Mental Health Act at Goodmayes Hospital (where he was found to be using the hospital Wi-Fi to access his advertising sites.) His lawyer claimed that Qaiser had suffered from mental illness. Russian police arrested 50 members of the Lurk malware gang in June 2016. Uadiale, a naturalized US citizen of Nigerian descent, was jailed for 18 months. Freedom of speech challenges and criminal punishment The publication of proof-of-concept attack code is common among academic researchers and vulnerability researchers. It teaches the nature of the threat, conveys the gravity of the issues, and enables countermeasures to be devised and put into place. However, lawmakers with the support of law-enforcement bodies are contemplating making the creation of ransomware illegal. In the state of Maryland, the original draft of HB 340 made it a felony to create ransomware, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. However, this provision was removed from the final version of the bill. A minor in Japan was arrested for creating and distributing ransomware code. Young and Yung have had the ANSI C source code to a ransomware cryptotrojan on-line, at cryptovirology.com, since 2005 as part of a cryptovirology book being written. The source code to the cryptotrojan is still live on the Internet and is associated with a draft of Chapter 2. See also References Further reading External links Incidents of Ransomware on the Rise – Federal Bureau of Investigation Types of malware Security breaches