FBI Releases "Ransomware on the Rise"

The FBI has released an article addressing ransomware campaigns that use intimidating messages claiming to be from the FBI or other government agencies. Scam operators use ransomware – a type of malicious software – to infect a computer and restrict access to it until a ransom is paid to unlock i...

New Cryptowall 3.0 Ransomware Communicates over I2P Anonymous Network

We have seen a series of Ransomware tended to be simple with dogged determinations to extort money from victims. But with the exponential rise in the samples of Ransomware last year, we saw more subtle in design, including "Cryptolocker" that was taken down along with the "Gameover ZeuS" botnet...

Crowti Cryptowall 3.0 Ransomware Moving in I2P Network

A new strain of the Crowti ransomware, also dubbed Cryptowall 3.0, was spotted by researchers early this week after a quiet period during the holiday season. The twist to these recent infections is that the malware communicates over the I2P anonymity network. French researcher Kafeine confirmed...

AOL Advertising Network Abused to Distribute Malware

Security researchers have uncovered a malvertising campaign used to distribute malware to visitors of The Huffington Post website, as well as several other sites, through malicious advertisements served over the AOL advertising network. At the end of last year, Cyphort Labs, security firm...

Cryptowall 2.0 Ransomware Analysis

If you need more evidence that ransomware is here to stay, and could turn into cybercriminals’ weapon of choice, look no further than Cryptowall. Researchers at Cisco’s Talos group today published an analysis of a Cryptowall 2.0 sample, peeling back many layers of known commodities around this...

Destover Wiper Malware Analysis

Researchers are starting to stitch together clues about the wiper malware that has landed a body blow to Sony Pictures Entertainment. Not only were thousands of files and documents leaked that included unreleased movies, confidential company presentations and financial records, employee records,...

Ransomware is the Future of Internet of Things Malware

WASHINGTON D.C. — It’s 2020, bitter cold outside, you’re running late for work, and the Linux box that controls your car isn’t going to start unless you wire $20 worth of Bitcoin to an increasingly business-like criminal enterprise operating out of Eastern Europe. Of course it’s not 2020. And to...

Matsnu Botnet DGA Builds Domains From List of Nouns, Verbs

Domain generation algorithms have been botmasters’ favorite tool for keeping malware up and running—and for frustrating security researchers and detection technologies. Like malware, DGAs evolve, thus complicating an already tricky cat-and-mouse game between criminals and white hats. The latest i...

CoinVault Ransomware Betting on Hope with Free File Decrypt

UPDATE: A prior version of this story incorrectly defined VSS as vulnerability scanning systems when in fact it refers to volume shadow copy service, which is a Windows automatic data backup and recovery mechanism. Thanks to commenter Rudy for pointing this out. The courteous CoinVault ransomware...

Microsoft Warns of Crowti Ransomware

Researchers with Microsoft have spotted a spike in Crowti, a ransomware similar to Cryptolocker that encrypts files on victims’ machines and then asks for payment to unlock them. The malware has existed for several months but it wasn’t until mid-October that Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center...

Koler Malware Propagating Through SMS

A new iteration of the Android ransomware Koler has surfaced that’s trying to trick its victims into downloading the malware by propagating through SMS messages. Android users receive SMS messages containing shortened bit.ly URLs that ultimately lead to the malicious .APK. Once opened, the packag...

Koler Android Ransomware Learns to Spread via SMS

Users of Android operating system are warned of a new variant of Android malware Koler that spreads itself via text message and holds the victim’s infected mobile phone hostage until a ransom is paid. Researchers observed the Koler Android ransomware Trojan, at the very first time, in May when th...

Malicious Ads on Yahoo, AOL, Trigger CryptoWall Infections

Attackers have been leveraging the FlashPack Exploit Kit to peddle the CryptoWall 2.0 ransomware on unsuspecting visitors to sites such as Yahoo, The Atlantic and AOL. Researchers believe that for about a month the malvertising campaign hit up to 3 million visitors and netted the attackers $25,00...

New Signed Version of CryptoWall Ransomware On the Loose

UPDATE–Researchers have discovered a variant of the CryptoWall ransomware that has a valid digital signature and is being distributed through malicious ads on several top-ranked Alexa Web sites. CryptoWall is one of the more successful ransomware strains in recent memory, with researchers...

jQuery Official Website Compromised To Serve Malware

The official website of the popular cross-platform JavaScript library jQuery jquery.com has been compromised and redirecting its visitors to a third-party website hosting the RIG exploit kit, in order to distribute information-stealing malware. JQuery is a free and open source JavaScript library...

Key Flaw Enables Recovery of Files Encrypted by TorrentLocker

Crypto ransomware, a relatively unknown phenomenon a couple of years ago, has exploded into one of the nastier malware problems for Internet users. Variants such as CryptoLocker and CryptoWall have been siphoning money from victims for some time, and now researchers have dissected a newer variant...

CryptoWall Ransomware Earns $1.1M, Encrypts 5 Billion Files

CryptoWall is a million-dollar business. The file-encrypting ransomware has netted the criminal gang responsible for its development and dispersal, more than $1.1 million in the six months it’s been in the wild, researchers at Dell SecureWorks’ Counter Threat Unit said in a report this week. The...

Behind the CryptoLocker Disruption

LAS VEGAS–The takedown of the GameOver Zeus malware operation in June got more than its share of attention, but it was the concurrent demolition of the CryptoLocker ransomware infrastructure that may prove to have been the most important part of the operation. That outcome was the culmination of...

Free CryptoLocker Ransomware Decryption Tool Released

When I say Ransomware, the first nasty piece of malware strikes in the mind is CryptoLocker. A nasty strain of ransomware malware that threatened most of the people around the world by effectively destroying important files of the victims forever. CRYPTOLOCKER - A DEVASTATING THREAT CryptoLocker ...

Koler Android Ransomware Infrastructure Complex and Agile

While the Koler ransomware may be a simplistic money-generating malware scam, the infrastructure standing up its campaigns is anything but. Researchers at Kaspersky Lab published a report today that not only explained details of how the attackers—possibly the group behind the Reveton...