A new ransomware virus called “Teslacrypt” is now spreading through the internet, attacking PC gamers by preventing them from playing their video games.
For those of you who doesn’t know, Ransomware is a type of malicious program that locks you away from accessing your computer data and ask for a ransom in order to unlock the computer.
In this case, the Teslacrypt targets both popular single player and multiplayer games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Day Z, Fallout 3, World of Tanks and encrypts their files, including the saved game files to stop the user from playing the game. In order to unlock the game, the victims will be forced to pay from minimum $500 to up to $1000 via Bitcoins. Once your game data has been encrypted, even re-installing the game via Steam won’t bring them back.
A similar attack was reported in 2013 when a ransomware called Cryptolocker, which took over valuable files on computers and asked for a ransom to unlock those files. However, security researchers at Bromium Labs claims that the Teslacrypt is not as powerful as Cryptolocker but simply an imitator that targets 185 file extensions related to video games.
“Encrypting all these games demonstrates the evolution of crypto-ransomware as cybercriminal target new niches. Many young adults may not have any crucial documents or source code on their machine (even photographs are usually stored at Tumblr or Facebook), but surely most of them have a Steam account with a few games and an iTunes account full of music,” Vadim Kotov, a researcher at Bromium wrote on a blog post.
Read Also: New Ransomware Targets Android Users Who Watch Porn
PC gamers stay safe out there. Keep a backup of your saved game files and your other valuable files. Also avoid clicking on strange links and downloading freeware programs, because even these researchers haven’t figured out how to decrypt the files without paying these hackers.
[Via: BBC / Bromium Blog / Photo: Flickr – dustball ]
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