Microsoft has spotted various kinds of localised malware attempting to dupe users by posing as messages from police forces.
Otherwise known as ransomware, the malicious software renders computers unusable and then demands payment from the target if they want their machine to work again.
The malware authors in recent cases have posed as police authorities, including the UK's Met, asking users to pay a fine for purported use of illegal material, Microsoft explained.
In the unfortunate case that your computer is infected with this malware, don't even consider paying.
The messages claim the user has accessed child pornography and emails "with terrorist background." Those who do pay do not get their computer fixed.
"In order to make the computer functional again, the user is asked to transfer money via a legitimate online payment service, such as Paysafecard or Ukash, to the supposed authorities," said Horea Coroiu, from the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre, in a blog post.
"A quite interesting fact is that the geographical distribution for most of the samples coincides well with the targeted countries. In the case of Trojan:Win32/Ransom.DU, which is a generic detection for a German-language variant of the ransomware that impersonates the German Federal Police, 91.59 per cent of the samples we received from July to November this year were found in Germany."
As for how the malware gets on machines, Microsoft found simple drive-by-downloads were to blame, with the Blackhole Exploit Kit used to infect systems.
Microsoft said several spam campaigns contained links to the exploit kit, some of which is generated by the notorious Cutwail botnet.
"The good news is that no zero-day exploits that we know of are involved, so keeping your software up to date will considerably reduce the likelihood of infection," Coroiu added.
"In the unfortunate case that your computer is infected with this malware, don't even consider paying. If you do so, your computer will not get unlocked anyway, so paying does not actually solve your computer problem."
Microsoft recently gifted IT departments one of the year's heftier Patch Tuesdays, covering 20 vulnerabilities.
-
Prolific ransomware operator added to Europe’s Most Wanted list as US dangles $10 million rewardNews The US Department of Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Volodymyr Viktorovych Tymoshchuk, an alleged ransomware criminal.
-
Jaguar Land Rover “did the right thing” shutting down systems to thwart cyber attackNews The attack on Jaguar Land Rover highlights the growing attractiveness of the automotive sector
-
Ransomware attack on IT supplier disrupts hundreds of Swedish municipalitiesNews The attack on IT systems supplier Miljödata has impacted public sector services across the country
-
A notorious hacker group is ramping up cloud-based ransomware attacksNews The Storm-0501 threat group is refining its tactics, according to Microsoft, shifting away from traditional endpoint-based attacks and toward cloud-based ransomware.
-
Security researchers have just identified what could be the first ‘AI-powered’ ransomware strain – and it uses OpenAI’s gpt-oss-20b modelNews Using OpenAI's gpt-oss:20b model, ‘PromptLock’ generates malicious Lua scripts via the Ollama API.
-
Data I/O shuts down systems in wake of ransomware attack
News Regulatory filings by Data I/O suggest the costs of dealing with the attack could be significant
-
Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarterNews Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
-
BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new groupNews The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
