Software protection companies are warning that a vicious new form of cyber-attack known as "ransomware" is threatening computers by encrypting documents and demanding money for them to be decrypted. Symantec, a manufacturer of anti-virus programmes, said on Wednesday on its website (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.pgpcoder.html) that the attacking program is a "Trojan horse" that enters the computer via holes in the victim's web browser, scans a hard drive and encrypts any text-based documents that it finds.
Unlike a virus, a Trojan horse does not replicate from machine to machine.
If it installs successfully, the new threat wipes out text files then displays a ransom note demanding 200 dollars (153 euros) to supply decryption software that will restore the data back to its original, readable form.
So far, only one case of "ransomware" has come to light, but this could be the start of a new and dangerous generation of malicious software, the British weekly New Scientist says in its next issue dated Saturday.
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