Beware: CryptoLocker Virus

Looks to be another nasty one.

A new computer virus is being called one of the strongest and most devastating viruses in history, strikes by literally holding the computer owners hostage, the Inquisitr reported.

The CryptoLocker Virus - which not only has the potential to destroy a computer hard drive, but holds the computer owners data ransom -infects computers through a legitimate-looking email, usually from a reputable company like FedEx or UPS. Once opened, the virus quickly spreads to the computer's hard drive and then offers the user a chance to rid the program for a hefty fee.

Crypto Locker Virus: New Aggressive Computer Virus Demands Ransom : News : University Herald

 

[rdwray]

What you have is some people who hate others and take peace from them because of greed.

 

[Coke Robot]

What you have is some people who hate others and take peace from them because of greed.

This is true, and in the most brilliant digital way possible...

 

[Coke Robot]

CryptoLocker's nightmarish. I always back up my most vital files, to which people wonder why I keep multiple copies of my stuff on several different computers as well as flashdrives and burned discs. I'm pretty careful, I don't download files that end in .exe except from reputable sources- any music, picture or document that ends in .exe is not what it seems but unfortunately many people just hit permissions through.

Also I don't download .zips or open message attachments from people I don't know and I don't follow the links either. People have to use the same common sense they do in the real world on the internet. But at the same time, I hope they find and nail the authors/creators of this and make an example out of them. It's odd that no one has been able to track down those responsible- I mean they took a police department and the FBI for a ride, and just nothing. But greed will probably be the Achilles heel in this operation- unlike a purely destructive attack- the whole point of ransomware is a payday and things that are untraceable now aren't going to remain so. The flow of Bitcoins for example, will be a testament to how greedy the developers are. If they're as canny as they were in their creation of the virus, they will stop at some point to prevent detection.

But the very fact they are asking such a steep price from every victim means their money induced haze will probably overpower common sense.

Don't download or open things you don't know, as well DO NOT download and/or use illegal activators. Some reported that a variant of the cryptolocker virus has been morphed into some illegal software activators as well as being able to be passed from removable drives and onto the local drive of a PC...

 

[rdwray]

What you have is some people who hate others and take peace from them because of greed.

This is true, and in the most brilliant digital way possible...

Nothing brilliant about it, they utilize a code created by someone else - copy and paste.

 

[Coke Robot]

What you have is some people who hate others and take peace from them because of greed.

This is true, and in the most brilliant digital way possible...

Nothing brilliant about it, they utilize a code created by someone else - copy and paste.

What's brilliant about it is that it goes to the extent of literally taking your PC hostage for ransom. Something like this really hasn't been done as far as I've known in recent years. And the only real way to "get" your PC back is to pay the money or else...

Clever and awful in one piece of code.

 

[BarneyRubble]

Received two of these today:
PDF Archives » My Online Security

Felt quite privigiled as Orange normally blocks 100% of these type of spam/virus emails so I'm blowed how it got through to me with only the tail end of my email address correct.

Obviously a scam with a senders address of "ayjwjag@pppav-esp-mad-46-186.knet.es" reporting to be from HMRC.

As I'm replacing my harddrive over the next few days and there's nothing on it worth keeping I thought I would experiment obviously knowing from here about the cyrptolocker (and of couse malware in general)

I removed the attachment to the desktop which was a zip file and within it was a pdf. The content of the pdf was just random nonsense almost like a pointless bit of spam.

With the zip file on the desktop, I've done full scans with Avast, Mbm, Sophos Virus Removal Tool, Spybot and it's Rootkill option just to see if they would detect anything. They came back with nothing except for the stand-alone scanner from Sophos. It reported:

Troj/PDFEx-IJ

and removed it. Downloaded Spyhunter and it found an anti-virus blocking rule and a Conduit Search Toolbar (no, I'm not paying for the full version to remove them). Seems that it's just a normal trojan.

So, my experiment didn't turn out to be the Cryptolocker virus but what it did teach me is that no one tool will capture everything.

Oh well, I tried