New Ransomware Demands $247,000
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 01/06/2017 04:07 PM
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A group of ransomware authors are being laughed at for demanding a ridiculous amount of ransom.
Variants of the KillDisk data wiping malware are being used to encrypt systems and demand a laughable amount of 222 bitcoins (US$247,000) for the data to be returned.
No one has bitten. And it is a good thing because the criminals are not sending a decryption key to a command and control server. So even if someone was foolish enough to pay the ransom, they still would not get their files back.
ESET researchers Robert Lipovsky and Peter Kalnai say: "Let us emphasize that the cyber criminals behind this KillDisk variant cannot supply their victims with the decryption keys to recover their files, despite those victims paying the extremely large sum demanded by this ransomware."
The malware is being distributed through malicious phishing spam and is capable of wreaking havoc with thousands of file types.
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These malware authors are also taking a page from the hit TV show Mr. Robot, according to Lipovsky and Kalnai who say: those attacks were "artistic" using iconography from the hacker hit show Mr Robot.
Source: The Register
No one has bitten. And it is a good thing because the criminals are not sending a decryption key to a command and control server. So even if someone was foolish enough to pay the ransom, they still would not get their files back.
ESET researchers Robert Lipovsky and Peter Kalnai say: "Let us emphasize that the cyber criminals behind this KillDisk variant cannot supply their victims with the decryption keys to recover their files, despite those victims paying the extremely large sum demanded by this ransomware."
The malware is being distributed through malicious phishing spam and is capable of wreaking havoc with thousands of file types.

These malware authors are also taking a page from the hit TV show Mr. Robot, according to Lipovsky and Kalnai who say: those attacks were "artistic" using iconography from the hacker hit show Mr Robot.
Source: The Register
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