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Anonymous Names Used for Extorting Money

The name of a hacktivist group, Anonymous is used by a new piece of malware to extort money from the Intranets, reported thenextweb.com on November 1, 2012. 

This is astounding not only due to ransomware commonly employs claims of contravention of the law and names law enforcement (e.g. the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] or FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation]) to scare victims, but also because this piece of malware is improbable to be favored by the hacktivist group. 

Particularly, ransom ware is a kind of malware (malicious software) that criminals install on your computer without one's consent.  Ransomware offers criminals the ability to lock your computer from a remote location and later on charge a handsome amount towards unlocking the computer. 

However, a screenshot of the "locked screen", has been obtained by the representatives of Swiss security blog Abuse.ch. 

Later a message is conveyed to the user regarding locking of the computer by the Anonymous Hackers Group that can be unlocked within 24 hours only o payment of a ransom £100. 

Further, it warns the users that in case of in cooperation towards paying the ransom amount within the specified the time limit, the system will be permanently confiscated and all the contents will be deleted.  Also, all the personal details hacked from the user including date of birth, address, etc.  will be published online together with the damage of ram and motherboard.  It also claims that the same also hold true in case of the user trying to remove the virus from the system. 

These users are further instructed with the mode of payment through Ukash for unlocking their systems. 

A virusTotal report of the ransomware shows that 23 out of44 security solutions can found it as malware. 

Interestingly, security experts are arguing about the group responsible for the attack.  The hard reason why it was not created by Anonymous includes: Firstly, Anonymous never harm users, Anonymous is activist who hack governments not innocent users, thirdly , Anonymous calls itself just "Anonymous not "Anonymous hackers group", and , Anonymous never concerned about money. 

Senior Technologist Consultant, Graham Cluley said: 'Never forget to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date (Sophos found this particular ransomware as Troj/Tansom-KI), and to operate a tight ship when it comes to patching your operating system and applications to save against vulnerabilities,' as reported by nakedsecurity.sophos.com dated November 2, 2012. 

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