CryptoWall and CryptoLocker Ransomware Campaigns Intensify, Just in Time for Christmas

[starbuck]

 

Security researchers from FortiNet and Heimdal Security are reporting on a new set of ransomware campaigns distributing CryptoLocker and CryptoWall ransomware, ramping up just before the holidays.

 

In both cases, attackers are using business-themed emails, either for unpaid invoices, or for shipping notices, which are either luring users into downloading and unzipping archives, or clicking on malicious links that infect them with the ransomware via a Web-based exploit kit.

 

Heimdal Security is reporting on a barrage of spam emails sent to Scandinavian users, that infect them with CryptoLocker version 2.

This is an older version, but still efficient enough.

 

On the other hand, FortiNet is reporting on infections with CryptoWall version 3 ransomware.

This is an older version as well, with version 4 recently launched, but still undecryptable.

 

In this campaign, cyber-criminals are using weaponized Word documents to spread the ransomware and are targeting over 190 different file types during their encryption.

 

Regardless if the infection occurs on work computers or your home laptops, this has the potential of ruining your Christmas, with the cyber-criminals requesting between $500 and $1,000 to unlock infected computers. So basically, it's a choice between paying the criminals and cutting down on the value of your Christmas gifts, or wiping the computer clean and ditching your encrypted files forever.

 

Just remember to make regular backups for the data you have stored on your computers.

That should be more than sufficient to make ransomware infections useless. But don't keep the backup on the same computer, or it will be encrypted as well.

 

 

Source:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/cryptowall-and-cryptolocker-ransomware-campaigns-intensify-just-in-time-for-christmas-497860.shtml

Edited December 20, 2015 by starbuck

[allheart55 Cindy E]

The people behind this are unbelievable. It never seems to end.