UK Cybersecurity Watchdog Warns of Bitcoin Ransomware Attacks
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which is a cybersecurity watchdog in the UK, warned the public of a new bitcoin ransomware scam circulating these days. The NFIB said that emails pretending to have originated from the UK Home Office, Ministry of Justice, and domestic oil company British Gas have been distributing malware called TorrentLocker. TorrentLocker locks up a user's files until a bitcoin ransom is paid. However, reports from previous years have revealed that majority of victims have declined to pay up to 4 BTC to decrypt their documents. Bitcoin Ransomware Scam. The....
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In fact, 1% of attacks saw a demand of US$150,000 to be paid in Bitcoin. Ransomware developers are always one step ahead of security researchers these days. Not only in the way their software works, but also how they target potential victims. American businesses are seeing an influx in ransomware attacks all of a sudden. More particularly, company executives are a prime target for ransom are right now. While nearly nine in ten ransomware attacks are targeting hospitals these days, corporations are not out of the woods just yet. A new study unveiled how 40% of businesses investigated had....
Paying ransomware hackers to decrypt infected computers doesn't always work, and may even be a crime in some countries.
A UK cybersecurity watchdog has issued a warning about new bitcoin ransomware attacks disguised as messages from several government agencies. According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), unknown parties have been reported spoofing emails from the UK Home Office and Ministry of Justice, as well as from domestic energy giant British Gas. The emails are being used to distribute TorrentLocker, one of a number of malware variants that, when activated, lock up a user's files unless a ransom in bitcoin is paid. A report last year found that the vast majority of TorrentLocker....
Ransomware attackers use malicious software to block access to data and demand ransom in return, oftentimes deploying the threat to make proprietary data public.