“It seems that the way these guys have selected their victims has sadly led to a greater level of success than we have seen before,” Ducklin says. It became more prevalent in the last couple of years.”ĬryptoLocker has been more successful than previous versions of ransomware, however, both in terms of the number of computers it has affected and the strength of the encryption. “In fact, this special kind of ransomware, often called crypto-malware, has been around for literally decades. “Technically, what CryptoLocker does is not new at all,” says Fabian Wosar, a security developer at Emsisoft. Bitcoin accounts associated with CryptoLocker have already added up to millions of dollars, with uncounted amounts of money presumably collected through other channels. The malware encrypts documents, PowerPoint files, images, videos, spreadsheets, Photoshop files, mp3s and other files-basically anything the average person would consider important or having sentimental value-and directs users to send money via Bitcoin or MoneyPak if they ever want to see the data again. You are never going to get your data back” after your files are encrypted, says Paul Ducklin, head of technology for the Asia–Pacific region at security company Sophos. “It's kind of like losing your computer or smashing your hard disk or dropping your computer in the harbor. And short of paying the ransom, there is currently no way to reverse the damage. Until recently, the malware-also known as “ransomware”-was undetectable by most antivirus software. Experts estimate that CryptoLocker infects around 1,000 PCs each day, mostly in North America, the U.K. Attacks have increased over the past few weeks, and yesterday they reported that a new version of the malware gives people more time to recover their files - for about $1,600 above the original asking price. How much would you pay if someone hijacked your computer files and demanded a fee for their safe return? $100? $1,000? Malicious software named CryptoLocker is currently infecting computers via poisoned e-mail attachments that lock up the machine’s data unless the owner agrees to pay $300 within 72 hours.Ĭybersecurity firms first noticed CryptoLocker in early September.
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