Sick software nasty uses child abuse pics to extort infected victims
Sick software nasty uses child abuse pics to extort infected victims
Pay €100 ‘fine’ to rid PCs of horror images
Posted in Security, 1st February 2013 08:04 GMT
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Depraved miscreants are spreading vile ransomware that displays images of child abuse on infected PCs and demands payment to remove them.
Typically, this sort of malware pretends to be an official piece of police software that pops up a message accusing victims of breaking the law – usually downloading copyrighted material or dodgy pornography – and locks down the computer until the user coughs up a fine.
But this new Trojan stoops to an all-time low by displaying the actual pictures of child sex abuse the victim is accused of viewing. The ransomware sports logos of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and the German Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringement (GVU) to lend an air of authenticity to proceedings.
Owners of infected machines are ordered to pay an on-the-spot fine of €100 in order to get a code that unlocks the computer.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) put out a warning about the disturbing new tactic in ransomware extortion on Tuesday; an advisory in German can be found here. Victims are advised to not be intimidated by the extortionists’ threats. ®
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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/01/ransomware_trojan/