Antivirus companies discovered a new nasty virus known as Cryptolocker which asks payment for decrypting the encrypted files.
This ransomware is particularly nasty because infected users are in danger of losing their personal files forever. Infected users also have a time limit to send the payment. If this time elapses, the private key is destroyed, and your files may be lost forever.
It is spreading through email attachments, and it is targeting companies through phishing attacks.
Cryptolocker will encrypt users’ files using asymmetric encryption, which requires both a public and private key. The public key is used to encrypt and verify data, while private key is used for decryption, each the inverse of the other. Decryption is impossible unless a user has the private key stored on the cybercriminals’ server.
Currently, infected users are instructed to pay $300 USD to receive this private key.
“You buy this $300 Green Dot MoneyPak, you cannot use a credit card for it, it had to be cash or debit card. Once they claim the funds, they unlock your files. If those files had been lost, it could’ve affected 10 years’ worth of work by several departments,” said one of the affected users.
This Forum post is having complete details about this Crypto Locker Virus.
If you get an email from somebody you do not know, especially if it’s got attachments, don’t open anything with it, just delete the email.
