14 DAY TRIAL // Panda Labs researchers came across another wave of ransomware attacks that pose as official warnings from law enforcement agencies, threatening users that their systems are held hostage until a fine is paid.
The experts believe that a single cybercriminal gang may be behind the malicious operations that target citizens of Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
A file with an icon that represents the logo of the famous LulzSec hacker collective hides a piece of malware that blocks the victim’s computer and displays a warning banner, claiming that the user has been identified as accessing illegal materials related to terrorism and other outrageous things.
In order to unblock the device, the user is requested to pay a fine of 100 EUR ($128), but unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the crooks will bother to disable the malicious software once the amount is paid.
This is why users are recommended to ignore such threats and try to disinfect the devices themselves by using a security software or by calling in a computer repair specialist.
To remove the threat, users must restart their computers in Safe Mode and run a full system scan with an updated anti-virus solution which should clean the system.
Judging by the screenshots provided by Panda, most of the ransomware requests payment using Ukash vouchers. This may indicate that the number of schemes involving this electronic transaction method is increasing.
Not long ago we’ve seen how even the Carberp Trojan has been redesigned to target Ukash voucher numbers to steal money from Facebook customers, the main reason being that these transactions are difficult to trace.
In December, 2011, researchers from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center identified 25,000 computers as being infected with ransomware between the months of July and November, each attack being especially designed to target the citizens of a certain country.