Hacker wants $5 mn ransom by Nov-end to solve Pemex cyberattack problems

The hacker behind a cyberattack that has crippled Petroleos Mexicanos’s computer systems since the weekend is hoping to squeeze almost $5 million out of the company and appears to have set a deadline of Nov. 30.

Pemex has other ideas, saying it won’t pay the ransom and hopes to solve the cyberattack problem today, according to comments made by Mexico energy minister Rocio Nahle on Wednesday.

Those comments were among the latest in an unfolding drama that has pitted the Mexican oil giant against an unknown hacker who uses the name “Joseph Atkins” in an email address -- almost surely a pseudonym.