ransomware

Pierluigi Paganini February 16, 2016
Ransomware demanded $3.6M after takes offline the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center

Cyber criminals demanded $3.6M after a ransomware-based attack takes offline the systems at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. In the “2016 Cyber Security Predictions: From Extortion to Nation-state Attacks” I published at the end of 2015 I have predicted the criminal practices of the extortion will reach levels never seen before. “Cyber criminals will use […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 05, 2016
Emergency. Hundreds of compromised WordPress sites serve TeslaCrypt ransomware

Operators running websites based on the WordPress must be aware of a spike in the number of compromised platforms used to deliver the TeslaCrypt ransomware. Administrators running websites based on the popular WordPress CMS must be aware of a spike in hacks that are resulting in the silent delivery of ransomware to the visitors. According to […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 29, 2016
Two thirds of the Android devices are vulnerable to Lockdroid ransomware

Experts at Symantec detected Lockdroid a new piece of Android ransomware capable of locking devices and fully wiping user data via factory resets. A new strain of ransomware called Lockdroid (Android.Lockdroid.E) is threatening Android users. The mobile ransomware has been detected by experts at Symantec, it is able to lock the device, change the PINs, […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 27, 2016
Hackers are blackmailing the creator of Open-Source Ransomware

The Turkish security researcher Utku Sen was blackmailed by hackers behind the Magic ransomware to close his projects. The developers behind the open source-based “Magic” ransomware are blackmailing the creator of Hidden Tear and EDA2 in order to force the developer to abandon the projects. Recently I have written about the RANSOM_CRYPTEAR.B ransomware developed Utku Sen starting from a proof-of-concept […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 25, 2016
A flaw in TeslaCrypt ransomware allows file recovering

The victims of the infamous TeslaCrypt ransomware can now rejoice, there is a free tool to decrypt files encrypted by TeslaCrypt and TeslaCrypt 2.0 TeslaCrypt is one of the most insidious ransomware first detected in the wild in 2015, today I have a good news for its victims. TeslaCrypt was first detected in February 2015, the […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 25, 2016
Operators behind Angler Exploit Kit included CryptoWall 4.0

The latest variant of CryptoWall 4.0, one of the most popular and dangerous ransomware threats, has been recently added to the infamous Angler Exploit Kit. In my 2016 Cyber Security Predictions, I have predicted the criminal practices of the extortion will reach levels never seen before. Cyber criminals will threaten victims with ransomware and DDoS attack in […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 14, 2016
Flawed RANSOM_CRYPTEAR ransomware makes impossible the file recovery

Faulty ransomware derived from  an open source ransomware project makes files unrecoverable due to a serious coding error. The story I’m gong to tell you is incredible, a cyber criminal gang has developed a very singular ransomware called RANSOM_CRYPTEAR.B and now I’ll tell you why? According to the experts at TrendMicro, the Ransomware has built starting from […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 07, 2016
Resume files locked by Linux Encoder with Bitdefender decryption tool

Bitdefender has discovered for the third time a flaw in Linux Encryption Ransomware Linux Encoder that exposes the decryption Key used to lock the files. In November  2015, the Russian antivirus firm Doctor Web reported the discovery of a new Linux ransomware dubbed Linux Encoder that was specifically designed to infect Linux systems. The Linux.Encoder1 ransomware encrypts files present […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 22, 2015
Angler exploit kit includes the code of a recent Flash flaw

A security researcher discovered a new variant of the Angler exploit kit that includes the exploit code for a recently patched Adobe Flash Player flaw. The French security researcher “Kafeine” has discovered a new variant of the popular Angler exploit kit that includes the exploit code for a recently patched Adobe Flash Player vulnerability (CVE-2015-8446). Kafeine reported […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 27, 2015
Crooks use the Nuclear Exploit Kit to serve CryptoWall 4.0

The popular Nuclear Exploit Kit has been used for the first time to serve the ransomware CryptoWall 4.0. The Nuclear exploit kit is one of the privileged weapon in the arsenal of cyber criminal groups, now the popular crimeware kit has been used to serve the ransomware CryptoWall 4.0. In the past, criminal crews used the […]