I went back and found that I was mistaken. JPG files that were altered were in fact completely unreadable.
In the confusion, I missed that JPGs with certain naming patterns were encrypted and others were left alone. I took two unrelated facts, 1) that plenty of images were readable, and 2) that plenty of images had binary differences, and put them together to arrive at a faulty conclusion. I am not going to be too hard on myself based on how that day was going for me.
IMG_????.jpg and presumably DSC?????.jpg were encrypted and other patterns were left alone. I presume this is to inflict damage as quickly as possible without getting bogged down encrypting stuff from "Temporary Internet Files" for hours.
I wonder if they'd improve their conversion rate by leaving behind a thumbnail to remind people of how much they liked their pictures that now risk being gone forever.
In the confusion, I missed that JPGs with certain naming patterns were encrypted and others were left alone. I took two unrelated facts, 1) that plenty of images were readable, and 2) that plenty of images had binary differences, and put them together to arrive at a faulty conclusion. I am not going to be too hard on myself based on how that day was going for me.
IMG_????.jpg and presumably DSC?????.jpg were encrypted and other patterns were left alone. I presume this is to inflict damage as quickly as possible without getting bogged down encrypting stuff from "Temporary Internet Files" for hours.
I wonder if they'd improve their conversion rate by leaving behind a thumbnail to remind people of how much they liked their pictures that now risk being gone forever.