Interesting article today.

New ransomware attack blocks Internet access

Security researchers have stumbled upon a new piece of ransomware that blocks an infected computer from accessing the Internet until a fee is paid via SMS (text message).

According CA researcher Zarestel Ferrer, the ransomware file is bundled with a program called uFast Download Manager. Once a machine is infected, a message is posted in Russian (see image above) demanding a ransom under the guise of activating the uFast Download Manager application.

Here is a rough English translation:

Internet access is blocked due to violation of the

license agreement schedules of uFast Download Manager

You must activate your copy

Get a registration code by sending an SMS with the following

code fw0004199 to number 7122

In response you will receive an activation message.

Enter the activation message received from the SMS response ________

CA is offering an activation code generator for this particular ransomware variant.

Link

IIRC, one of the first pieces of ransomware was around the late '80s or early '90s. The AIDS virus?

I first heard about Ransomware about 5 years ago. The program then around encrypted your hard disk.

A fee was demanded for the key to unencrypt it. Much more nasty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransomware_%28malware%29