Virus encrypts victim's computer data for ransom

The UK Crime Prevention Agency (NCA) in November issued a warning about a virus that is spreading very fast online via email, called CrytoLocker.

Understanding the psychology of many Westerners who are buying goods at the end of the year, a group of unknown hackers created CrytoLocker and sent them in spoofed emails of courier shipping orders from Fedex or UPS , when the user clicks this link, the device is infected. It is worth mentioning that the virus is also called " Ransomware: virus for ransom ", when it has controlled the victim's computer, they will proceed to encrypt the important data files of the machine, and give a warning. Ransom, sometimes 100 USD, 200 USD, 300 USD or 2 Bitcoin. The victim has a maximum of 100 hours to conduct a ransom transfer, otherwise the data will be deleted.

Virus encrypts victim's computer data for ransom Picture 1

According to NCA , CrytoLocker virus has spread to tens of millions of computers in Europe and there are still signs of an increase, even a police station in the city of Swansea ( Wales ) is infected with the virus and pay 2 bitcoin. ( $ 750 at that time) to " redeem " your data. Fortunately, they are working with the network security to stop the ransom virus, reporting Monday that December 2, the server containing the CrytoLocker virus has been disabled. The current warning is not to open untrusted links in strange emails.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency unit, introduced by a person or an organization with the nickname Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Characteristics of this currency are born with peer to peer computer systems, For example, bit-torrents, system computers will perform extremely complex calculations to generate bitcoins, which are called " bitcoin plowing ", the more powerful a computer is, the " plowing " is possible. The more bitcoin is.

However, bitcoin founders have limited each hour to only a maximum of 300 bitcoins, after a four-year cycle, halved. For example from 2009-2013 is 300 bitcoin / hour, from 2014-2017 is 150 bitcoin / hour. This limit helps the amount of bitcoins generated less, so their value is increased, typically at the present time, a bitcoin costs about 1200 USD. Hackers create ransom CrytoLocker with Bitcoin because this money can be easily traded on the Internet, without fear of being traced compared to using a bank credit card.