A new variant of the PowerWare ransomware is stealing street creds from the Locky strain of ransomware in an attempt to spoof the malware family. A new sample of PowerWare found by Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 reveals the ransomware’s quickly evolving tactics. According to researchers, a new version of the ransomware is using Locky’s “.locky” file extension to...

Researchers are reporting a surge in CryptXXX ransomware infections delivered via business websites compromised to redirect to the Neutrino Exploit Kit. Attackers are targeting websites running the Revslider slideshow plugin for WordPress, according to a report released Tuesday by Invincea. Behind the attacks, said Pat Belcher, director of security research at Invincea, is the SoakSoak...

While most of the discussion around ransomware is rightly so about the unabated stampede of new strains and variations on existing samples, relatively little discourse focuses on detection beyond antivirus and intrusion prevention systems. Some generic ransomware detection systems for Windows and OS X exist, but many of those are signature-based or have other limitations...

Researchers have observed ransomware so sophisticated over the last few months that we’ve seen a variant tease researchers with strings of hidden code and another composed entirely of JavaScript. But not every attacker is technically proficient; researchers are suggesting the ones behind a new strain of ransomware may just be plain lazy. The ransomware Ranscam simply deletes users’ files, even if the...

Researchers have spotted several types of ransomware, including CryptXXX and a fairly new strain, Cryptobit, being pushed through the same shady series of domains. The campaign, called Realstatistics, has tainted thousands of sites built on both Joomla! and WordPress content management systems. Researchers with security company Sucuri observed the campaign injecting bogus analytics code, including the url...

For the second time since June 1, the handlers of CryptXXX ransomware have changed their ransom note and Tor payment site. More importantly to those developing detection signatures and administrators, this update no longer makes changes to the file extensions of encrypted files. “To make it more difficult for administrators, this release no longer uses...

The pseudo-Darkleech campaign is one of the most notorious and ongoing attacks of recent years, making use of major exploit kits to deliver primarily different strains of ransomware. The campaign has been a bit of chameleon since it was disclosed in March 2015 by researchers at Sucuri. The latest bit of its shape shifting involves...

Ransomware called Zepto is raising concerns with security experts because of its close ties to the more mature and prolific Locky ransomware. Zepto was spotted about a month ago, but a recent wave of spam containing Zepto-laced attachments detected on June 27 is heightening fears of widespread infections. “We are watching Zepto very carefully. It’s...

A hacker selling upwards to 655,000 healthcare records on the dark web allegedly obtained them after exploiting a vulnerability in how companies implement remote desktop protocol, or RDP, functionality. The hacker, who goes by the handle “thedarkoverlord,” allegedly penetrated three healthcare organizations and made off with a database from each, according to Deep Dot Web, who...

Crooks behind the fast spreading CryptXXX ransomware updated the latest variant with better encryption technology and new methods to evade detection by researchers. This latest version of CryptXXX was spotted by researchers at SetinelOne that say the new updated sample has already earned ransomers approximately $50,000 in bitcoin payouts in the last 17 days. The...