The Associated Press and online tech news outlets recently reported that some hackers have found a way to lock documents on a computer, encrypting them so they are unavailable to the computer’s owner
without a decryption key.
The hackers then demand money for the key.
According to the accounts, security researchers at Websense Inc., San Diego, Calif., said that an unnamed corporate customer was forced to pay $200 to regain access to its own files saved on its own computers. The files included documents, photographs and spreadsheets.
The computers were infected by viewing an infected web site using vulnerable Internet browser software. The infection locked up at least 15 types of data files and left behind a note with instructions to e-mail a certain address. In an e-mail reply, the hacker demanded $200 be wired to an Internet bank account. "I send program to your e-mail," the hacker wrote.
"This is equivalent to someone coming into your home, putting your valuables in a safe and not telling you the combination," said Oliver Friedrichs, a security manager for digital security company, Symantec Corp.
The FBI said the scheme, which appears isolated, was unlike other Internet extortion crimes.