It wasn’t even half a year that the Ransomware has taken the entire world for a trip by intruding into users’ private cyber information (and blackmailing wealth). However, India was sort of untouched by this ungrateful software.
But on Wednesday, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has issued a warning regarding the spread of its latest version Locky ransomware in India.
Locky ransomware is a peculiar type of ransomware that can take over a victim’s system and encrypt its files. Later it demands a ransom to release the data, similar to the Petya or WannaCry ransomware.
Thebut the main catch with Locky here, is its ability to analyze the most important files and demand individual price for the encrypted data.
The spam messages include common subject-lines like “please print“, “documents“, “photo“, “Images“, “scans” and “pictures“, however, the subject texts may change in some cases such as targeted phishing campaigns
–said CERT IN, which has also reported over 23 million emails and messages been sent with the Locky ransomware attached.
The messages contain “zip” attachments with Visual Basic Scripts (VBS) embedded in a secondary zip file.
The VBS file contains a downloader which polls to domain “greatesthits.mygoldmusic.com”* to download variants of Locky ransomware.
*(please do not visit this malicious website)
[Source Credits: Digit.in]
“[.]lukitus” or “[.]diablo6”. are the file extensions of the locked files of a system infected with the ransomware.
After infecting the files, the ransomware straightly demands a payment of 0.5 Bitcoins or about INR 1,51,171.
To stay safe from the Locky malware, CERT has advised not to click on any of the suspicious files which have the above-mentioned subject lines or extensions.
It is also highly recommended to take regular backups of your important files using an external storage device like USB Flash Transfer Drives or External Hard Drives.
But, do note that this malicious software can also possibly harm your remote network connections and attached removable media. Therefore, consider not keeping them attached to your computer on a regular basis.
#BeCyberSafe
