Just when you thought the ransomware virus has faded in the news, it is coming back to haunt your digital life once again. The news of Cryptolocker ransomware has been confirmed by the security vendor Trend Micro.
Researchers at Trend Micro have reported of a ransomware which is believed to be a variant of Cryptolocker and is capable of spreading through USB drives. The security vendor has suggested that the process of proliferation indicates that the malware continues to spread. Abigail Pichel of Trend Micro has blogged that –
“Aside from its propagation technique, the new malware bears numerous differences from known CryptoLocker variants. Rather than relying on a downloader malware—often UPATRE— to infect systems, this malware pretends to be an activator for various software such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office in peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing sites. Uploading the malware in P2P sites allows bad guys to easily infect systems without the need to create (and send) spammed messages.”
WORM_CRILOCK.A malware
Trend Micro has detected that this Cryptolocker variant as WORM_CRILOCK.A is capable of spreading removable device which was not heard with any variant of Cryptolocker ransomware.
Apart from the propagation, this new WORM_CRILOCK.A malware is quite different from earlier CryptoLocker variants. Instead of using a downloader malware such as often UPATRE for infecting computers, this new WORM_CRILOCK.A malware acts as an activator for reputed software Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop at file sharing sites. Uploading on P2P sites and circulating these malware through these sites are the easiest mode of spreading malware; much easier than creating spammed messages.
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