Computer Files Held Hostage !!

Wednesday 25 May 2005 @ 11:02 am

You think hacker (or cracker, by right) will just come into your PC and browse around without doing anything bad?

Now you have more to worry as hackers have found a way to lock up the electronic documents (any format of the file) on your computer and then demand a ransom for their return !!

Quoted:
Security researchers at Websense, an internet security company based in San Diego, uncovered the unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would not identify fell victim to a virus that encrypted documents, photographs and spreadsheets. An e-mail was later sent demanding $200 for the digital keys to unlock the files.

This security problem has brought FBI’s attention. FBI said the threat was unlike other internet extortion crimes. The virus locked up at least 15 types of data files and left behind a note with instructions to send an e-mail to a particular address to purchase keys for unlocking the data. In an e-mail reply, the hacker demanded that the money should be transferred to an online bank account.

They also said that the hackerâ€™s demand for payment might be his weakness, since bank transactions can be traced easily.

Quoted:
Joe Stewart, a researcher at the security firm Lurhq, said. â€œYouâ€™ve got to send the money somewhere. If it involves some sort of monetary transaction, itâ€™s far easier to trace than an e-mail account.â€

[Source]

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