Highjack Hostages: Cyber Extortion and Ransomware Threats

[Orion1]

Cyber Extortion-Randsomware...

WASHINGTON -- The latest threat to computer users doesn't destroy data or steal passwords -- it locks up a person's electronic documents, effectively holding them hostage, and demands $200 over the Internet to get them back.

Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. uncovered the unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would not identify fell victim to the infection, which encrypted files that included documents, photographs and spreadsheets.

A ransom note left behind included an e-mail address, and the attacker using the address later demanded $200 for the digital keys to unlock the files.

"This is equivalent to someone coming into your home, putting your valuables in a safe and not telling you the combination," said Oliver Friedrichs, a security manager for Symantec Corp. The company said Tuesday the problem was serious but not deemed a high-level threat because there were no indications it was widespread.

The FBI said the scheme was unlike other Internet extortion crimes. Leading security and antivirus firms this week were updating protective software for companies and consumers to guard against this type of attack, which experts dubbed "ransom-ware."

"This seems fully malicious," said Joe Stewart, a researcher at Chicago-based Lurhq Corp. who studied the attack software. Stewart managed to unlock the infected computer files without paying the extortion, but he worries that improved versions might be more difficult to overcome. Internet attacks commonly become more effective as they evolve over time and hackers learn to avoid the mistakes of earlier infections.

"You would have to pay the guy, or law enforcement would have to get his key to unencrypt the files," Stewart said.

The latest danger adds to the risks facing beleaguered Internet users, who must increasingly deal with categories of threats that include spyware, viruses, worms, phishing e-mail fraud and denial of service attacks.

In the recent case, computer users could be infected by viewing a vandalized Web site with vulnerable Internet browser software. The infection locked up at least 15 types of data files and left behind a note with instructions to send e-mail to a particular address to purchase unlocking keys. In an e-mail reply, the hacker demanded $200 be wired to an Internet banking account. "I send programm to your email," the hacker wrote.

There was no reply to e-mails sent to that address Monday by The Associated Press.

Ed Stroz, a former FBI agent who now investigates computer crimes for corporations, said the relatively cheap ransom demand -- only $200 -- probably was deliberately low to encourage victims to pay rather than call police and to discourage law enforcement from assigning these cases a high priority.

"That's a very powerful threat," Stroz said. "If somebody encrypted your files, you need this stuff now to do your work."

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said more familiar Internet extortion schemes involve hackers demanding tens of thousands of dollars and threatening to attack commercial Web sites, interfering with sales or stealing customer data.

Experts said the Web site where the infection originally spread already had been shut down. They also said the hacker's demand for payment might be his weakness, since bank transactions can be traced easily.

"The problem is getting away with it -- you've got to send the money somewhere," Stewart said. "If it involves some sort of monetary transaction, it's far easier to trace than an e-mail account."

On the Net:
Details of attack:
www.websensesecuritylabs.com/alerts/alert.php?AlertID194

BTW, if you pay me US$200, I will not post any more irrelevant equations on PF!

 

[dduardo]

Yeah, too bad they encrypt the files poorly. If they encrypted the files using military quality algorithms then this would be a competely different story.

 

[exequor]

Lately this is the hot topic but what I don't understand someting. Are they requesting that the money be sent to a swiss bank account? This sounds like kidnapping a child then telling the parents to put the money in account no. xxxxxxxxxxxxx.

 

[sneez]

how do they kindnap the file ? DO they sniff it from net or do they break into a box and move is somewhere else ?

 

[exequor]

how do they kindnap the file ? DO they sniff it from net or do they break into a box and move is somewhere else ?

Many ways, the whole objective is to have the file(s) in a position where you have to pay to get it back. It can be encrypting the file, removing it from its location, etc.