British officials issued an unusually stark alert about a cyberscam that locks users out of their computers unless they pay a ransom, saying Friday that tens of millions of people may soon be targeted.
In a warning headlined "URGENT ALERT," Britain's National Crime Agency said they were aware of a "mass email spamming event that is ongoing" and urged computer users to beware of messages purporting to come from their bank.
Tony Neate, the chief executive of British Internet safety group GetSafeOnline, said it was noteworthy that the agency ? often described as Britain's equivalent of the FBI ? had sent out such a strongly worded alert about a cyberscam.
"They're only going to do it if they think it is serious," he said in a telephone interview.
The scam targeting Britons works by tricking people into downloading CryptoLocker, a new brand of malicious software that encrypts a user's hard drive, effectively putting their photos, documents, and other data under lock and key.
A 72-hour countdown clock appears on the screen warning that the files will be lost irrevocably unless a ransom is paid, either through Bitcoin ? a tough-to-trace cybercurrency ? or MoneyPak cash cards. Ransoms tend to be $100 or $300, according to BleepingComputer, a security website that has closely tracked CryptoLocker's spread.
Users who've paid the ransom have reported that their files are decrypted within a few hours, but Britain's crime agency warned that it did not endorse the payment of ransoms to criminals and warned that "there is no guarantee that they would honor the payments in any event."
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/uk-w...geting-millions
Brute force it.. took me 28 hours on an idiots machine.. read up on brute force public/private key encryption.. you have the public key half.. so that's more than half the battle.. Basically..
Plaintext that consists of an RSA private key can be easily recognised, because it satisfies certain mathematical properties. In particular:
Must say I'm surprised nobody has come along demanding I tell in detail how it's done.. oh well.. wonders never cease.. I know the clever people read my posts on these topics.. what do you do if the drive is already encrypted you ask? .. you know where the "install.log.txt" file lives in windoze?.. the first line is ALWAYS the same.. there's your clue.. along with the formula in previous reply..
ahhh codebreaking.. it's what these computer things we use today were invented to do.. they excel at it.. if it can be encrypted it can be decoded usng a computer.. and these guys aren't using a "one time pad"
Originally posted by ps355528: Must say I'm surprised nobody has come along demanding I tell in detail how it's done.. oh well.. wonders never cease.. I know the clever people read my posts on these topics.. what do you do if the drive is already encrypted you ask? .. you know where the "install.log.txt" file lives in windoze?.. the first line is ALWAYS the same.. there's your clue.. along with the formula in previous reply..
ahhh codebreaking.. it's what these computer things we use today were invented to do.. they excel at it.. if it can be encrypted it can be decoded usng a computer.. and these guys aren't using a "one time pad"
