China Bitcoin ransomware report- 11.9% victim pay to recover their files

[hl5460]

Qihu 360, the leading IT company in China, releases an annual report on the development of ransomware in China and predicts 10 times growth of potential victims or 50 million in 2017.



http://news.8btc.com/chinese-bitcoin-ransomware-report-11-9-victim-pay-to-recover-their-files

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[deadsilent]

This is a bad publicity for bitcoin. Because they use bitcoin as their bridge from their crimes. This is not.a joke since bitcoin is at stake at this situation. I think it will be unstoppable. And they will put the blame to bitcoin.

[400actforsale]

I had my computer hacked back in June and they demanded 1.2BTC for ransom. Although I know how to send BTC and I have some BTC (not greater than that 'huge' amount) back than, I don't pay them and I had Googled the solution for the ransomware. Luckily there's a decrypter available online and we had successfully decrypted our files for free. My mom's friend also had her computer hacked in August, and also demanded Bitcoin ransom, but their technical knowledge is not that high (and don't even know how to get bitcoin) so they have to format their hard disk...

This is a bad publicity for bitcoin. Because they use bitcoin as their bridge from their crimes. This is not.a joke since bitcoin is at stake at this situation. I think it will be unstoppable. And they will put the blame to bitcoin.

Agreed... After our computer was hacked for ransom paid in Bitcoin my family had lost all confidence in it (they had only little confidence in Bitcoin even before that)... I'm the only member of my family that is get involved in bitcoin (and altcoins)...

[mobnepal]

Agreed... After our computer was hacked for ransom paid in Bitcoin my family had lost all confidence in it (they had only little confidence in Bitcoin even before that)... I'm the only member of my family that is get involved in bitcoin (and altcoins)...

The one who don't understand bitcoin completely may think bitcoin as a way for hackers to get away with ransom amount or as criminal money. But all types of currency are being used by criminals and hackers. You have to make them understand what actually is bitcoin and how it has been safe currency for hackers and criminals.

People have to think about securing their computer rather than blaming bitcoin for the cause, malware/ransomeware need a way to enter in computer. Most of the people are careless about their web surfing habit and they keep downloading files from unknown sources which are the main cause for malware and ransomeware. I am also one of them who got infected by ransomeware in past and sadly i can't afford to pay ransom amount so that i have to format my laptop completely.

[merchantofzeny]

Well that would definitely sour the public's perception of Bitcoin. It has already been associated with illegal transactions for a long time and this is not going to help btc's and altcoin's reputation.

[slaman29]

I had my computer hacked back in June and they demanded 1.2BTC for ransom. Although I know how to send BTC and I have some BTC (not greater than that 'huge' amount) back than, I don't pay them and I had Googled the solution for the ransomware. Luckily there's a decrypter available online and we had successfully decrypted our files for free. My mom's friend also had her computer hacked in August, and also demanded Bitcoin ransom, but their technical knowledge is not that high (and don't even know how to get bitcoin) so they have to format their hard disk...

This is a bad publicity for bitcoin. Because they use bitcoin as their bridge from their crimes. This is not.a joke since bitcoin is at stake at this situation. I think it will be unstoppable. And they will put the blame to bitcoin.

Agreed... After our computer was hacked for ransom paid in Bitcoin my family had lost all confidence in it (they had only little confidence in Bitcoin even before that)... I'm the only member of my family that is get involved in bitcoin (and altcoins)...

Is very bad news to hear and offering our sympathies for you. My father never want to use phone that is more advance than SMS phone only, since he hears from friends they have their phone being hacked (even I think is not true as the friends just lose passwords or play with settings to spoil it). Wish you luck and be more careful for visiting unknown sites.

[Kakmakr]

How many times do we need to repeat this? DO YOUR DAMN BACKUPS and then you will laugh at this, when it happens to you. I backup regulary on DVD's, so I will not pay a cent, if I get Ransomware demanding bitcoins to decrypt my data. DO NOT simply over write previous backups on a external harddrive, because that may be infected too. DO NOT save private keys on your computer. Use Virtual machines / Clean bootable Operating systems like Tails to restart the OS after each session, to avoid infection.

Lastly, educate people about this threat and counter measures to protect themselves. ^smile^

[panju1]

Qihu 360, the leading IT company in China, releases an annual report on the development of ransomware in China and predicts 10 times growth of potential victims or 50 million in 2017.
http://news.8btc.com/chinese-bitcoin-ransomware-report-11-9-victim-pay-to-recover-their-files

11.9% is a large number. Given the speed at which ransomware spreads, even if a small percentage of infected computers agree to pay the ransom, the attacker has made a tidy profit. With such a large number ready to pay, it is not surprising that ransomware has the potential to grow exponentially. It won't translate into growth for Bitcoin though.

[400actforsale]

Is very bad news to hear and offering our sympathies for you. My father never want to use phone that is more advance than SMS phone only, since he hears from friends they have their phone being hacked (even I think is not true as the friends just lose passwords or play with settings to spoil it). Wish you luck and be more careful for visiting unknown sites.

Thanks for your sympathies, and I (as the admin of the computer) have made stricter control on user rights since then (previously, for convenience, all users had admin rights). It was my younger brother browsing websites when he was doing his school project when the computer was hacked. Fortunately we had most of our files backed up or decrypted successfully and no important data nor bitcoins was lost.

For your father's case, I think he can use the latest smartphones despite he is afraid of being hacked, if he know not to store many important information on the phone...

11.9% is a large number. Given the speed at which ransomware spreads, even if a small percentage of infected computers agree to pay the ransom, the attacker has made a tidy profit. With such a large number ready to pay, it is not surprising that ransomware has the potential to grow exponentially. It won't translate into growth for Bitcoin though.

In fact I have monitored the BTC price since my PC hack in June (I had left for a while that time), and the price haven't stopped increasing since that time, from $460 to $800 today... These ransoms in fact bring lots of buy orders on Bitcoin (and the hackers won't sell them instantly as they may be tracked) and hence driving up the price...

DO NOT save private keys on your computer.

Well I am always doing this...

DO YOUR DAMN BACKUPS

We are always doing this to avoid hardware failure.

[Herbert2020]

this ransomware is becoming one of the worst malwares of our time in my opinion, it is growing fast and the protections currently available doesn't seem to be strong enough against its variations. and the fact that it is coupled with bitcoin for the distributors to take ransom is doubly worse because of how it is making bitcoin look in the media.

[dawnpot]

This is indeed serious and the advance laboratories should come up with a solution soon, most of the recent worms are passed through crypter to make them undetectable by hardcore antivirus so it's scary at the moment but hope for a solution in the coming weeks.

[lottery248]

if this kind of ransomware fluorish over the china, would bitcoin banned in China or how could Chinese government do to prevent those kind of ransomewares? that is a question.
btw qihu 360 softwares' award were disqualified because of possible cheats on performance on preventing viruses.

[NeuroticFish]

This is a worrisome big number, 11.9%

This is something I don't understand:

The victim said he received an email in his PKU emailbox with a PDF attachment. He doubled click the file out of curiosity, then all of his files were locked.

does this mean that there still are antivirus programs that don't detect ransomware?


And about bad publicity:
Somebody smart enough will see thru this and be able to decide that if cyber criminals can rely on Bitcoin, then Bitcoin is a really good coin/currency/asset, actually.

[Pursuer]

if this kind of ransomware fluorish over the china, would bitcoin banned in China or how could Chinese government do to prevent those kind of ransomewares? that is a question.
btw qihu 360 softwares' award were disqualified because of possible cheats on performance on preventing viruses.

maybe it is because China has the first largest population in the world that it also has the most victims to this particular ransomware.
but I doubt that the government is going to do anything about bitcoin just because a computer malware is using it to take ransom from pool people who was the victim of this malware, that wouldn't make any sense.

there have been some improvements on breaking the encryption from some of the variations of this malware though. but it has not yet been completely neutralized.

[aso118]

if this kind of ransomware fluorish over the china, would bitcoin banned in China or how could Chinese government do to prevent those kind of ransomewares? that is a question.
btw qihu 360 softwares' award were disqualified because of possible cheats on performance on preventing viruses.

maybe it is because China has the first largest population in the world that it also has the most victims to this particular ransomware.
but I doubt that the government is going to do anything about bitcoin just because a computer malware is using it to take ransom from pool people who was the victim of this malware, that wouldn't make any sense.

there have been some improvements on breaking the encryption from some of the variations of this malware though. but it has not yet been completely neutralized.

It is also a cultural issue. In third world countries, people have no qualms about using pirated software if it means saving a few dollars. When lots of people download and install software from unsafe sources on the net, it becomes easy for malware to spread.

[sportis]

Without doubt  the spread of ransomware is a bad issue and is something which anyone of us have take under consideration. Moreover I see that China goverment has enact strict penalties which means that it takes very seriously the whole issue. But I would like to mention another one thing which is more evil imo. Recently ransomware criminals asked of their victims to pay or sending a link so as to infect other computers i.e to act like as trojan horse in order decrypt their files. It's interesting to drop an eye if you are unaware of it. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1714639.msg17176971#msg17176971

[Juggy777]

Bitcoin is being made a scapegoat for the ransom ware, it is not even related to it. This fools are bringing bad name to Bitcoin, already people are skeptical of Bitcoin and this news won't really help people come into Bitcoin. There's no way to stop this people or file a complaint in your local country it department and then they track it, or we have to live under constant fear of being held for Ranson? It could also be the local work right? I hope people do not associate this with Bitcoin as both are not even related.

[Catmony]

It is also a cultural issue. In third world countries, people have no qualms about using pirated software if it means saving a few dollars. When lots of people download and install software from unsafe sources on the net, it becomes easy for malware to spread.

Yes its the main reason for malware to spread quickly in third world and developing countries. Actually people from these countries can't afford to buy 100$+ priced software for one small task but they need it badly, so they will keep searching for crack version and key generator and most of the time this types of files contains malware.

[BigBoom3599]

I agree, ransomware is pretty bad, especially that new one that gives you the option to infect your friends instead of paying 
It's unfortunate that bitcoin has gotten itself in this mess because it only increases the stereotype that bitcoin has with drugs, hackers, terrorism,...
I really hope that people learn one thing from this though: backups,backups,backups...

[just_Alice]

Qihu 360, the leading IT company in China, releases an annual report on the development of ransomware in China and predicts 10 times growth of potential victims or 50 million in 2017.



http://news.8btc.com/chinese-bitcoin-ransomware-report-11-9-victim-pay-to-recover-their-files

In the article they are saying that criminals who have committed frauds with value of more than 500,000 RMB (which is $71,500) will get lifetime imprisonment. I'm wondering if hackers robbed 100 victims for $800 will they get lifetime imprisonment? If the answers is yes, and most likely it is, the hackers should think twice whether it worth the risk. What a life! First you are robbing innocent people and then you spend the rest of your days in prison.