{"id":69,"date":"2009-01-10T21:42:44","date_gmt":"2009-01-11T02:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/?p=69"},"modified":"2022-12-30T12:05:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T17:05:31","slug":"ransomware-gets-tougher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/ransomware-gets-tougher\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware Gets Tougher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ransomware<\/a>Anti-malware vendor Trend Micro<\/a> has noted<\/a> an increase in ransomware<\/a><\/strong>. According to Wikipedia<\/a> ransomware is a type of malware<\/strong> that encrypts the data<\/strong> belonging to an individual on a computer, demanding a ransom for its restoration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This type of ransom attack can be accomplished by (for example) attaching a specially crafted file\/program to an e-mail message and sending this to the victim. If the victim opens\/executes the attachment, the program encrypts a number of files on the victim’s computer. A ransom note is then left for the victim. The victim will be unable to open the encrypted files without the correct decryption key<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once the ransom demanded in the ransom note is paid<\/strong>, the attacker may (or may not) send the decryption key<\/strong>, enabling decryption of the “kidnapped” files.<\/p>\n

Recently, Trend Micro Advanced Threats Researcher Ivan Macalintal reported that a new version of the GPcode ransomware has surfaced, It is said that Gpcode[dot]ag utilizes a 660-bit RSA public modulus. Attackers appear to be upping the ante, in early June 2008, another Gpcode variant, Gpcode [dor]ak, has been detected and researchers believe it utilizes an RSA encryption<\/a> algorithm with a 1024-bit public key. “We estimate it would take around 15 million modern computers, running for about a year, to crack such a key,” writes Aleks Gostev, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky<\/a>, on the company’s blog.<\/p>\n

The rise of ransomware makes regular successful data backups even more important<\/strong>. With current backups, you can delete the files in question, restore them from your backup and let someone else pay the attacker.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ransomware getting tougher by using RSA encryption algorithm with a 1024-bit public key needs 15 million computers, running for 1 year to crack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3216,27,824,23,1507,2236,152],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malware","tag-3216","tag-data-security","tag-encryption","tag-malware","tag-ransomware","tag-rsa","tag-trend-micro"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t