Malicious major website ads lead to ransomware

Friday, June 6th, 2014

Malicious advertisements on domains belonging to Disney, Facebook, The Guardian newspaper and others are leading people to malware that encrypts a computer's files until a ransom is paid, Cisco Systems has found. The finding comes shortly after technology companies and U.S. law enforcement banded together in a large operation to shut ...

Experts Discover File-Encrypting Android Ransomware

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

Security vendor ESET claims to have discovered the first ever piece of file-encrypting Android ransomware, which has an associated C&C server hosted on a TOR domain to hide its location.The malware, detected by the vendor as 'Android/Simplocker', is most likely a work in progress as the implementation of the encryption ...

U.S. Leads Multi-National Action Against “Gameover Zeus” Botnet and “Cryptolocker” Ransomware, Charges Botnet Administrator

Monday, June 2nd, 2014

The Justice Department today announced a multi-national effort to disrupt the Gameover Zeus Botnet – a global network of infected victim computers used by cyber criminals to steal millions of dollars from businesses and consumers – and unsealed criminal charges in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Omaha, Nebraska, against an administrator of ...

Ransomware Now Uses Windows PowerShell

Monday, June 2nd, 2014

We highlighted in our quarterly threat roundup how various ransomware variants and other similar threats like CryptoLocker that now perform additional routines such as using different languages in their warning and stealing funds from cryptocurrency wallets. The addition of  mobile ransomware highlights how these threats are continuously improved over time. We recently encountered another variant that used the Windows ...

Your Android phone viewed illegal porn. To unlock it, pay a $300 fine

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

Researchers have uncovered Android-based malware that disables infected handsets until end users pay a hefty cash payment to settle trumped-up criminal charges involving the viewing of illegal pornography. To stoke maximum fear, Android-Trojan.Koler.A uses geolocation functions to tailor the warnings to whatever country a victim happens to reside in. The screenshot ...