Fresh Ransomware Employs Child Porn Images While Targeting Internet Users

Experts at Sophos have found one ransomware sample, which utilizes photographs showing sexual abuse on children, while forces Internauts to pay money.

The malware that becomes active soon as any end-user accesses the Internet displays one screen that locks the Web-browser, while the screen purports to be from Bundeskriminalamt, the Federal Criminal Cops of Germany. The authority, by showing apparent child porn images together with victim's location, full-name and age, claims they were seen on the target computer.

According to Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley from Sophos, it isn't anything unusual to find ransomware which employs porn material like a tool. But the current malware showing images is very different and unprecedented, thus shocking, he comments. Theregister.co.uk published this, August 5, 2013.

There's as well the display of the ISP and Internet Protocol address of the end-user on the lock page. Alongside an active webcam shows the end-user operating his PC, provided the hardware exists for the system. Instructions follow telling the end-user he can unlock his computer by depositing a fine into a specified online account.

Disturbingly, it isn't simply computers that child porn pictures are targeting but they're targeting websites too to deface contents.

Sophos has reported the latest ransomware scam to authorities, especially the registered charity Internet Watch Foundation, which actively prevents potentially offensive material on the Internet from getting floated, particularly child porn pictures.

Technical Researcher Sarah Smith with IWF stated that no large numbers of hijacked sites were observed during 2011-2012 until during June 2013 when there was suddenly the scam occurring increasingly. Scmagazineuk.com published this, August 5, 2013.

Smith further stated that the crime suggested how somebody nowhere near searching child porn pictures could unexpectedly encounter them. According to her, adult content that Internauts usually watched was pretty different from anything associated with children or youngsters. Computing.co.uk published this, August 5, 2013.

Meanwhile reports came to IWF where people expressed their anguish regarding what they'd viewed, Smith said. The organization's reporters with great diligence explained precisely how the crime occurred so its analysts could track it down while adopt measures against the pictures of children being sexually exploited, she concluded.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/13/2013