Pay Ransom Or Infect Others!

Still under development, new ransomware will ask victims to free their files by paying 1 bitcoin or by infecting two others.

The ransomware world appears all set to get even more malicious as a new under-process malware has been discovered on the Dark Web which, when completed, will have a “novel and nasty twist” to it, reports Threatpost. Dubbed Popcorn Time, the ransomware will give its victims an option – pay 1 bitcoin to get your decryption key or infect two other people to get your decryption key. The ransom deadline will be one week.

The malware is reportedly being developed to target 500 file types and will employ AES-256 encryption to freeze files with .filock extension, Threatpost says.

“I have never seen anything like this in ransomware. This is definitely a first,” says Lawrence Abrams of BleepingComputer.com. “There is unfinished code in the ransomware that may indicate that if a user enters the wrong decryption key four times, the ransomware will start deleting files,” he adds.

Developers of Popcorn Time claim to be students from Syria who say the money received will be used to provide relief to people of the war-ravaged country.

Read details here.

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