Sick software nasty uses child abuse pics to extort infected victims
Depraved miscreants are spreading vile ransomware that displays images of child abuse on infected PCs and demands payment to remove them. Typically, this sort of malware pretends to be an official piece of police software and pops up a text message accusing victims of breaking the law - usually for downloading copyrighted …
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Re: hammered and blow-torched
Remove the platters and polish them with an angle grinder with a 60 grit disc.
Re: "good luck living more than 5km from children"
It seems strange that in Australia you would be forced to reside close to children after being convicted of such heinous offences?
Very very low!
I have seen a watered down version of this on a friends PC. No images on the warning, just stating that he had been browsing that kind of porn and that he had to cough up £100 fine, it did hijack the webcam and have a picture of him on the warning. I've known him for a good many years and know he wouldn't do that, and anyone that earnestly believes the sentence for viewing child porn is as simple as £100 fine needs their head examined.
This particular one wasn't too aggressive to remove. it still popped up in safe mode but I was able to open up system restore from a command prompt and roll it back then get rid of the rest piece by piece.
Re: Very very low!
you used windows, its not a secure os. you deserve these problems
The malware authors ARE distributing CP. On the other hand, tracing the payments will be hard, the bankers are very fond of their cut of the proceeds of crime whether it's 1.8% of a hundred Euros or hundreds of millions of Dollars. (yes HSBC, I'm talking of your illegality).
Thought experiment
If the malware had placed a picture of a murder being committed onto your hard drive it would be an evil and unpleasant act.
However would you thereby be placed in a position where you would be accused of murder?
Re: Thought experiment
No. Simple answer: having pictures of a murder is not illegal.
How about...
Place a piece of card over the (majority of) the offending image (but not the demand for cash/fake plod logo) and use a separate device (analogue or digital camera) with date stamp (and/or a newspaper with date on, in shot) to record the fact said thing popped up demanding money.
Store image in VERY safe location.
In the event an investigation DID occur, you at least have some proof that you were being extorted at the time, but were potentially scared to report it for fear of media etc repurcussions.
Then rebuild the machine, post DBAN.
At last!
Someone has thought of the children! Err... wait a second...
Well....
What exactly stops someone taking a screenshot of the fine pop up window, either with a camera or print screen and then taking the PC to the cop shop? It'd be strong evidence in your favour that some bastard dumped it on your PC.
Re: Well....
Yes, then all you have to rely on is sympathetic police more interested in a fruitless pursuit of an untraceable international gang than just nicking you. Followed by a trial in which a a judge and jury both understand the technology and believe a child pornographer is innocent until proven guilty - in spite of what the home secretary says.
Re: Well....
There was an incident like that written up in Slashdot awhile back. The guy took his PC to a PC shop (admittedly not a cop shop) and complained that all this porn had been loaded on it. Was promptly arrested on child porn charges. It probably depends on the local laws and specific circumstances, but generally, bringing in the police may not solve your problem.
I'd be tempted to wave goodby to all my stuff and completely scrub the disk. Or maybe microwave it for a few minutes and buy a new one.
Nuke it
Pull your hard drive and destroy it. If you report this to your local flatfoot they will arrest you, impound all your equipment and charge you with whatever the local district attorney wants to throw at you. By the time the computer is examined by forensics you will be tens of thousands in debt with a destroyed reputation . 100 bucks for a new western digital is cash well spent.
That and kill the ringleader if you are Liam.
Anonymous...
...would, despite the opinions of some people, probably be the ones to appeal to here. They have a history of semi-ethical-driven behaviour. It'd be an applaudable act if they tracked these scum down and made their names and addresses known to the public and legal authorities, along with pictures of them, if possible, and their social networking addresses....
Is this the new KP distro method?
Are the pix all the same for every incident, or different? I mean, this could just be a cover for a KP distro ring, you pay up plus 1p, and they "reinfect your machine".... and you can claim to the plods that it was an infection not mental deficiency, as referenced by TheReg article on this sort of, er, "scam".
It is not like there will be a screen shot of the KP to compare after all, so all the images could be different and no one would know. What a plan.... perhaps I could make money off by getting a worldwide patent then suing the perps for infringement when they are caught?
(BTW the latest in America is that anyone caught with KP on their machines, has to pay damages to the underage participants. For each and every image. So not only do you get to carefully carry the soap in the shower but if you get out, you won't have enough cash to buy a donut to sit on).
wait wait wait...
> The ransomware sports logos of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and the German Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringement (GVU) to lend an air of authenticity to proceedings.
So... there's kiddie porn on your computer, and you're supposed to believe that the government is concerned about copyright infringement?
No choice. Has to be immediate destruction of hard drive.
Congratulations 'Think of the children' extremists. You've just ensured that a bunch of really despicable criminals will never be traced.
It was inevitable
This is (another reason) why information should never be illegal. By making simple possession of an image a crime, governments have literally put a weapon into the hands of cyber criminals.
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