New Ransomware Spreads by Making Victims Infect their Contacts’ PCs

Security researchers have found one fresh ransomware which has been named "Popcorn Time." Soon as this malware infects an end-user's PC, it encrypts each and every file on the system thus blocking the victim's access to them.

The most terrible aspect about Popcorn Time is that the only way to eliminate it is by either going about the usual way of making a ransom payment or contaminating two other contacts of the victim. Thefinancialexpress-bd.com posted this, December 13, 2016.

Thus, when any end-user becomes contaminated with Popcorn Time -the name derived from BitTorrent client, however, unrelated to it- the malware advises him to make certain cash payment and have his files unlocked. The amount demanded is one Bitcoin (613.20 pounds/USD772.67).

Going by one report, Popcorn Time's always developing source-code indicates to the victim that incase he feeds the decryption key wrongly beyond a specified number of instances then Popcorn Time will block his files permanently.

Nonetheless, there's another option offered which the developers depict to be 'the nasty method' i.e. forwarding one web-link pointing to the ransomware. Accordingly, suppose 2-or-more persons load the file and make the ransom payment then the original victim's files would be decrypted free-of-charge.

Victims who opt for contaminating others would get one "referral" URL that they would be required for passing on to 2 more persons. And if those URLs get utilized for contaminating still more PCs, then the first victim would receive one free decryption code. Incidentally, the link leads onto the Tor server of Popcorn Time.

We've seen how ransomware is acting a highly-widespread type of malicious software that cyber-criminals employ for encompassing many types of victims held to ransom and ranging between small enterprises and prominent health-care companies. Only this November, a ransomware assault resulted in many shared PCs related to the San Francisco Public Transport System towards being shutdown.

The Popcorn Time ransomware is indeed progressing, thus reports Bleeping Computer. Consequently, people are being cautioned against following web-links they don't recognize no matter whether they arrive from sources known to them. Besides, it's important to have data-backups so they can be used incase such malware attacks.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/15/2016