AplusWebMaster
Topic Starter
FYI…
- http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/188700699
June 01, 2006
"Another Trojan horse that tries to extort money from victims whose files have been locked up was discovered Thursday by a U.K. security company, making it the third piece of "ransomware" to appear this year. Sophos warned users of "Arhiveus.a," aka "MayAlert," a Trojan that encrypts all the files in Windows' "My Documents" folder after it infects a PC. When users try to access a file in My Documents, a message pops up that spells out the damage, and warns against going to the authorities. "Reporting to police about a case will not help you, they do not know the password. Reporting somewhere about our email account will not help you to restore files. Moreover, you and other people will lose contact with us, and consequently, all the encrypted information," it reads. Arhiveus/MayAlert requires users to make purchases from one of three online pharmacies before the criminals hand over the 30-character password that unlocks the encrypted files… Sophos researchers have cracked the Arhiveus/MayAlert code* and extracted the password:
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw
"The password is deliberately long and complicated, [but] there should be no reason for anyone hit by this ransomware attack to have to make any payments to the criminals," added Cluley."
* http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/art…6/arhiveus.html
- http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/188700699
June 01, 2006
"Another Trojan horse that tries to extort money from victims whose files have been locked up was discovered Thursday by a U.K. security company, making it the third piece of "ransomware" to appear this year. Sophos warned users of "Arhiveus.a," aka "MayAlert," a Trojan that encrypts all the files in Windows' "My Documents" folder after it infects a PC. When users try to access a file in My Documents, a message pops up that spells out the damage, and warns against going to the authorities. "Reporting to police about a case will not help you, they do not know the password. Reporting somewhere about our email account will not help you to restore files. Moreover, you and other people will lose contact with us, and consequently, all the encrypted information," it reads. Arhiveus/MayAlert requires users to make purchases from one of three online pharmacies before the criminals hand over the 30-character password that unlocks the encrypted files… Sophos researchers have cracked the Arhiveus/MayAlert code* and extracted the password:
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw
"The password is deliberately long and complicated, [but] there should be no reason for anyone hit by this ransomware attack to have to make any payments to the criminals," added Cluley."
* http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/art…6/arhiveus.html