Cryptowall ransomware appears to be pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars by encrypting scores of hard drives across Britain, America and Australia demanding victims pay hefty Bitcoin ransoms.

Victims were asked to pay $US500 to unlock encrypted drives within a short period or face exponential increases in ransom.


Criminals have made huge profits from the crime.



The town of Durham has thumbed its nose at the scammers with police proclaiming they would rather deal with the fallout of encrypted computers than pay the unscrupulous crooks.

"Make no mistake, the Town of Durham will be paying no ransom," town manager Todd Selig (@tselig) said.

Machines were restored from backups by the police.

Users of unpatched versions of Flash, Java and Silverlight were open to attack.