Upon starting up the computer, a victim may see what looks to be an official government seal, leading the victim into believing they are the subject of an official inquiry.

Also known simply as lockers, these are a type of ransomware designed to completely lock users out of their computers. Not responding to this will not do anything except lead to more pop-ups. Security software that the user does not own would not have access to this information. Ransomware victims may receive pop-up notifications saying malware has been discovered on their system. This malware poses as security software or tech support. Types of ransomwareĪttackers may use one of several different approaches to extort digital currency from their victims: The ransomware will then display a message to the victim, explaining that files are inaccessible and can only be accessed again upon paying a ransom to the attackers - commonly in the form of bitcoin. Once this is done, the files cannot be decrypted without a key known only by the attacker. It will then add an extension to the files, making them inaccessible. Once the malware is in a system, it will begin encrypting the victim's data. The malware can also be spread through chat messages, removable Universal Serial Bus (USB) drives or browser plugins. Other more aggressive forms of ransomware will exploit security holes to infect a system, so they do not have to rely on tricking users.

Average corporate crypto locker