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- From scareware to ransomware
,----[ Quote ]
| FireEye, a malware specialist, reports that Vundo, which makes fake antivirus
| programs (scareware), has now started a new scam. Vundo is no longer merely
| alarming users with bogus warnings that their PCs have been infected to con
| them into buying largely useless scanning software. Their latest attacks
| (ransomware) encrypt all of the files (.pdf, .doc, .jpg and others) on a
| user's PC and then report garbled data.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/135453
"The threat to cancel Mac Office 97 is certainly the strongest bargaining point
we have, as doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately. I also
believe that Apple is taking this threat pretty seriously."
--Ben Waldman, Microsoft manager
Recent:
Ransomware Trojan code break 'impractical'
,----[ Quote ]
| A cryptographic expert has questioned the practicality of a code breaking
| initiative geared to cracking the key used in the dangerous Gpcode-AK
| ransomware virus.
|
| [...]
|
| But cryptographic expert Bruce Schneier argues that the effort is
| impractical, misguided and little better than a publicity stunt.
|
| "We've never factored a 1024-bit number - at least, not outside any secret
| government agency - and it's likely to require a lot more than 15 million
| computer years of work. The current factoring record is a 1023-bit number,
| but it was a special number that's easier to factor than a
| product-of-two-primes number used in RSA," he writes.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/ransomware_trojan_code_break/
Security firm asks for help cracking ransomware key
,----[ Quote ]
| In ransomware attacks, hackers plant malware that encrypts files and then
| displays a message demanding money to unlock the data. In the case of the
| newest Gpcode, 143 different file types are encrypted,
| including .bak, .doc, .jpg and .pdf. The encrypted files are marked by the
| addition of "_CRYPT" in their file names, and the original unencrypted files
| are deleted. As a camouflaging move, Gpcode also tries to erase itself.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=930244217&rid=-50
Related:
Ransomware Trojan locks up infected PCs
,----[ Quote ]
| A new strain of "Ransomware" that attempts to coerce victims into paying $35
| to unlock their Windows PC, is doing the rounds.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/03/ransomware_trojan/
Hacking extortionist resurfaces
,----[ Quote ]
| GpCode, a Trojan horse which last made a run at users last summer, has popped
| up again, said Aleks Gostev, senior virus analyst with Moscow-based Kaspersky
| Lab, in a posting to the research center's blog.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=97155551&rid=-50
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