ICT Security-Sécurité PC et Internet

CryptoLocker, the ransomware menace that has been snowballing in profile of late, is stepping up its game even further.

File integrity monitoring, patching, key defence.

Criminals are ransoming database backups, after compromising web applications to change databases' encryption settings.

Detailed by security consultancy High-Tech Bridge, the attacks start with an attack on a web site that yeilds acess to a database server.

Once in, attackers change the encryption settings used by the database and store the key on an HTTPS server somewhere, an operation that apparently escapes some admins' attention.

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/securite-pc-et-internet/?tag=RANSOMWARE

As if CryptoLocker wasn't causing enough problems by infecting and locking thousands of innocent users' Windows computers, security researchers have discovered a new variant of the ransomware that takes its propagation to a new level.

Up until this, CryptoLocker couldn’t travel under its own steam. You would encounter it by opening an email attachment or clicking on a link perhaps claiming to come from your bank or a delivery company.

However, the new version can spread between removable drives – posing as activation keys for tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office, seeded on P2P file-sharing networks.

===> That means, of course, that the bad guys behind this new variant don’t have to blast out a spam email campaign to spread their malware. And, it might make it easier for CryptoLocker to infect PCs across your organisation. <===

The cyber-gang running the CryptoLocker extortion racket is splitting its ransomware take with criminal botnet owners, says Symantec, which is monitoring this underworld activity online.

Threats like these are opportunistic, and as with many modern threats your best protection against them is to employ basic online street smarts:

Street smart rule #1 is don’t blithely open attachments in emails you weren’t expecting, even if they appear to come from someone you know.