Ransomware Pretends to be Law Enforcement, Demands Monetary Penalties

Panda Labs the security company said that its researchers had detected one more series of ransomware assaults, which pretended to be formal alerts that agencies of law enforcement issued, admonishing end-users that they required paying a fine if they wanted their systems to be freed from captivity.

The phony e-mails, said the researchers that were utilized within the above kind of ransomware threats, were normally written in English; however, the present assaults were localized, therefore, the messages were observed as being in Dutch, Spanish or German based on whichever country was targeted. Importantly, the trend of the overall assaults aimed at European nations; hence, it appeared as though the perpetrators of all the assaults belonged to the identical cabal of cyber-crooks, as well as they were inter-related.

One file, having the logo belonging to LulzSec the well-known hacker cabal, conceals malicious code, which disables the victim's PC as well as exhibits an alert regarding the end-user who was apparently found accessing unlawful content associated with terrorism or additional offensive materials. Thus, users wanting to resolve the issue must deposit EUR100 (USD128) as fine, the file indicates.

Moreover, when at its worst, the file renders the user's computer dysfunctional so he mayn't be able to remove it easily.

Nevertheless, the security specialists say that it isn't new to see the threat of the above kind confronting end-users. For, the initial attacks pretended to be Microsoft threatening end-users to deposit fines else the agency of law enforcement would be contacted, because they'd been spotted with Windows pirated version. Still earlier, online miscreants utilized different names such as Federal Department of Justice and Police of Switzerland, Federal Police of Germany, the Dutch Police, Spanish Police, or the Metropolitan Police of UK so their scams might appear increasingly genuine.

Consequently, it's recommended that end-users assign little notice to such threats, while actually disinfect their computers themselves with good quality security software alternatively seek a specialist's help. Essentially, the process involves rebooting the PC while kept within safe mode followed with enabling the anti-virus software for conducting a system scam for viruses or other malware.

Related article: Ransomware Trojan Asks for $300 for Giving User Data Back

» SPAMfighter News - 1/25/2012