Upon installing itself onto the machine, Cryptolocker begins searching through the enumerated drives looking for various documents to encrypt. Cryptolocker is most often seen distributed via email. Enter CryptolockerĬryptolocker takes what seems to many to be the next obvious step, leaving the machine largely accessible to the user but encrypting their documents. Removal of these particular forms of ransomware were occasionally time consuming, but once fully removed, the machine was left in the same state it was prior to being infected, negating the need to pay the ransom. In these cases, the machine and its contents are left intact, although the user is unable to use the machine until the infection is removed or the ransom paid. Until recently, the most successful ransomware usually involved hijacking the desktop, generally under the guise of a law enforcement agency such as the FBI, the machine left in a state where the user is presented with a demand. Like many other types of malware, ransomware also aims to generate revenue, but its approach takes a critical diversion from nuisance, opting instead to restrict access to the computer in some way and holding the machine hostage under the demands of a ransom. The big news in the realm of internet security over the past several weeks has been the appearance of Cryptolocker, a new entry into the category of malware frequently referred to as ransomware. In the end, these programs focused on making a minor nuisance of themselves in the name of ultimately exploiting the user to generate or increase revenue, or direct web traffic to a particular site.Įvery now and then, however, something truly worthy of pause surfaces.

If they happened to make their way onto a machine, these rogue anti-virus programs would claim the machine to be infected and offer to kindly cure this non-existent infection for a modest fee.

Prior to this, false or “rogue” anti-virus programs saw a moment of popularity. Despite all the discussion of worms and backdoors, much of the time, new works of malware these days are designed simply to facilitate browser redirection or the serving of ads to users. In the world of internet security, new versions and variants of malware appear on a daily basis, although relatively few pieces of new malware actually get notable time in the spotlight.

Crypto locker outbreak