[2017-09-21] This Ransomware Demands Nudes Instead of Bitcoin

[Eric Cartman]

For years, cybercriminals have been extorting victims by locking their computers with malware. The hackers promise to give the victim their files back as long as they fork over the cryptocurrency—typically Bitcoin—within the stipulated time limit. Now, someone has added a new, perverse twist to this tried and tested scheme: demanding naked photographs instead of Bitcoin.

Researchers at MalwareHunterTeam, a research group focused on ransomware, spotted the software, called nRansomware on Thursday. The group posted a screenshot of the message that's displayed when a victim gets infected:

"Your computer has been locked," reads the message, which then asks the victim to email the hackers. "After we reply, you must send at least 10 nude pictures of you. After that we will have to verify that the nudes belong to you."

The message is displayed on top of an haphazard background made of several images of the fictional children's character Thomas the Tank Engine and a smiley face with the writing "FUCK YOU!!!" in bold. It's not clear how many people have been hit with this ransomware, or how serious the hackers behind it really are.

To some extent, the malware does appear to be legitimate. The file, nRansom.exe, is classified as malicious by several antivirus engines, including VirusTotal and Hybrid Analysis, which are both public malware repositories. Other users on Twitter also reported spotting more samples of this particular ransomware.

Malware can end up on these repositories if someone manually submits an entry and details what and does and how, or if malware is submitted and is then automatically analyzed. Motherboard attempted to infect a virtual machine with the malware but was unable to do so.

This could very well be a prank, given that it doesn't actually encrypt files, according to MalwareHunterTeam and another researcher who looked at the malware.

"It is a screenlocker, so files aren't encrypted," MalwareHunterTeam told Motherboard in a Twitter direct message. "We have no information about anyone getting infected with this."

The malware also appears to play looped music—from a file called your-mom-gay.mp3 that is actually the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme song—in the background, according to the MalwareHunterTeam.

We contacted the hackers via the email address included in their ransom message. They didn't immediately respond to our questions.

In any case, while this ransomware is clearly gross, sadly, it's not unexpected. Hackers have for years used malware to spy on women and steal their nudes or access their webcams.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yw3w47/this-ransomware-demands-nudes-instead-of-bitcoin

[Merovius]

This one seems like a prank, especially since it does not actually encrypt files, which means that a victim theoretically would not really have to send the hackers anything if he/she could figure out a way to disable or circumvent the screenlocker. I had to laugh at this part however:

To some extent, the malware does appear to be legitimate.

The idea of legitimate malware seems like an oxymoron (contradiction in terms) to me, kind of like "legitimate rape", "somewhat (or a little bit) pregnant", or even "efficient bureaucracy".

[Jating]

This one seems like a prank, especially since it does not actually encrypt files, which means that a victim theoretically would not really have to send the hackers anything if he/she could figure out a way to disable or circumvent the screenlocker. I had to laugh at this part however:

To some extent, the malware does appear to be legitimate.

The idea of legitimate malware seems like an oxymoron (contradiction in terms) to me, kind of like "legitimate rape", "somewhat (or a little bit) pregnant", or even "efficient bureaucracy".

Well could be a prank and maybe the hackers are expecting that someone would send them nude pictures of the victims. I guess you can send anyone's nude picture here, including your grandma  . But seriously, I think the hackers is just testing his trojan/malware and how many computers can it infect. And then he will unleash v2.0 which is more malicious than this one, and maybe will do a ransomware. But for now, I hope no one will fall for this prank. You can need to figure out how to disable this virus and clean it up yourself.