Hackers Holding Computer Files 'Hostage'

1 min read

This thread's last reply is from May 25, 2005, 5:15 PM UTC. Software, malware, and removal-tool advice below may be out of date — treat specific steps and download links with caution.

'KotaGuy

May 24, 2005, 5:31 PM UTC

"Computer users already anxious about viruses and identity theft have new reason to worry: Hackers have found a way to lock up the electronic documents on your computer and then demand $200 over the Internet to get them back."

Full story here.

'KotaGuy

May 24, 2005, 5:33 PM UTC

Bump

'KotaGuy

May 25, 2005, 4:29 PM UTC

"Virus writers have taken to extortion with malicious code that can hold documents on infected PCs hostage. The attack attempts to extort money from victims by encoding files on their PCs using a Trojan horse before requesting payment for a decoder tool."

Full story here.

'KotaGuy

May 25, 2005, 4:57 PM UTC

"In a new type of online attack, extortionists remotely encrypt user files and then demand money for the key to decode the information."

Story here.

'KotaGuy

May 25, 2005, 5:15 PM UTC

"There have been a number of recent reports of a new attempt to extort money from computer users. It's done using a piece of malware which, once installed on the victim machine, encrypts the user's data and drops a text file into each directory demanding $200 for a decryption key [the money to be wired to a specified Internet bank account] .

Kaspersky Lab added detection for this code, which we detect as Virus.Win32.GPCode.b, on 20 May. And we added detection for similar code, Virus.Win32.GPCode.a, in December 2004. Not only do we detect the code, but we also decrypt the files."

Story here.