New Ransomware virus targeting video game save files specifically. Be careful, yo.

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainm...rcraft-Minecraft-fans-virus-ransom-save-files

Makes you feel safe, eh?
I doubt anyone here is actually technologically inept enough to click any janky looking links, but you know. If you are, better save up those BitCoins

Interesting.

I spent 30 minutes the other day sluething around on "free Steam Wallet" websites. It was fun, but cleaning up my FB and computer wasn't so much fun lol.

I have all these games and steam and I have yet to have this happen to me.

I think the .exe didn't manage to run on my linux

I got this once on Windows 7, I was terrified.

Fixed it using malware bytes while running in safe mode :3

I browse the internet in what are possibly the least possible safe ways, without any antivirus.

Haven't seen this yet.

you didn't get this, squishy.

I don't think you understand what encryption is.

if your files really are locked and encrypted with RSA.

there's no fuking way in 3 billion years you're decrypting it even with the most powerful computer on the planet.

you need the private key and that's the only way you're getting your files back.

I mean I got ransomware, jeese. =S

His point was (in typical tatsujb fashion...) that if you really had been infected with ransomware, your files would have been encrypted and you would have no means of decrypting those files anymore. You can happily remove the infection, but that won't decrypt your files. Those would be lost forever unless you buy the decryption key or have a back-up.

Did you have to restore your files from back-ups afterwards? If not, then it wasn't ransomware, or you just didn't care for the files that it deleted. Though there was a case of ransomware that actually stored the decryption keys on the victims computer. Minor bug there.

There are more ransomware out there that hold your computer without actually doing anything to it besides locking basic features, than there are ones that encrypt files. The ransomware that doesn't encrypt, are fixed once the registry is fixed and the changes made by the virus removed, and then the virus is 100% removed from the computer. The ones that do encrypt, sometimes store the key in the virusware itself or use a weak encryption.

The rare instance of this particular one, is just really good ransomware that literally poses a real threat.

Erm.. My screen was replaced on boot up by something telling me that I need to pay up because I was caught doing "illegal activity", it was said to be the British police; very very formal looking.

After I fixed it up with malware bytes it was fine, maybe the better versions have that- But if it tells me I must enter in a credit card to pay a fee to get tmy computer back.. it's ransomware.

no it's not! (it's not the same as the above your's was a fake ransom-ware because there was nothing it was holding ransom as you clearly demonstrated, you on your own were able to remove the message on the screen which was nothing ever but a message on your screen, sure people would have paid but in this case I doubt that program even had an off switch once you'd paid. It's a "noobware" not a ransomware". The difference is very striking and I can see that you cannot quite fathom how bad the situation could get).

Oh, be nice, eh? It's not that easy to tell the difference. Anyway, the virus that @squishypon3 got infected with is just the "Metropolitan British Police Virus". And like you said, it's all fake:

(source)
It's just a scam, not ransomware. All of your files are in fact safe and you just needs to clear the infection and you are good to go.

What actual ransomware does is encrypt your files. So it transforms files like this:

Code:

This is a very important file and I have no back-up!

into this (encrypted with RSA2048 key):

Code:

hQEMA+JjrR3QjhmwAQf+NH5V8ddbUUZB4QRmPOXpPhC/NBruxbHaAUnMNiFDRUtnvUifkZhQU9Qx
ahtBUCe5peYtnwpQ3CWRKaFlI8TA++jl+IoYeqNtTT2ejgBEOe1/tjNK41pRY2/ebF8Ql60uxemQ
20FyGrc/WIyO8sv/CuHuUUvnn4OU++K9RZL5nmBDKS/VnAPE0+dszQPpJAtRASMhPs5O9DJAHoAP
YS9zcivY9liViXQ/4g1d9QSdeeVUfSLtPakTwsj3jb3C3ru1tqwauCHyasrtgFG9t0+RurBMewtX
tEyI72SlvGKsfyFLOGcPJ5CFQ5aEQTZLL+VR51B4iq0KzyA1ri8eKREjTNJwAU9nIHU4S53TELeN
YFj2W4DBcM5iPCtLhj5IinGjvLJiB4yRnXmvQfCg/7d+xfmR2bNyVC9ORbdP3higx4DCc+vp+B1g
txWn+iGsq4+Kil2xi02gWvfNP7F/8j67igD0L/S1z1VZ2wI7K4jf1ioiTw==

To decrypt that, you would need my secret key. I will sell you the secret key for a nice sum and you can use it to decrypt your files again to regain access. And if you don't, you need 3 billion years of computing time on a super computer to retrieve your files. Good luck with that! (Well, maybe the NSA has a shortcut. )

hint: no they don't

Both "hold your computer for ransom"...

What you just described, is as such:

I am a Starcraft tournament participant at top tier. I meet a lot of people who launch Starcraft, but they aren't players because they are terrible at using the game. They are not players, I am. The difference is I actually play it and they barely can operate it at all. I am "Player" and they are "noobware"...

Or, even more funny, the classic old stereotype/insult to @Geers , a la: Yew cawl dat a nife?


dats nawt a nife... dis ish uh nife!

The difference is that one is a scam (you pay money, and nothing happens), the other is ransom (you pay money, you get you computer/files back).

How do I know you are not a NSA agent, eh?!

Is it considered ransom if I tell you you'll never get your daughter back unless you drop $10,000 cash at a location before 2:00 PM... if she's really just at school?

Answer that, and the debate can end.

???
that's a scam.

100% sure that's what you call it.

BAM Debate over.

It was ransom in an episode of Detective Conan. What next, are we going to argue if the name is "Case Closed" or "Detective Conan"?