{"id":6388,"date":"2014-11-26T13:29:44","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T18:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southjerseytechies.net\/blog\/?p=6388"},"modified":"2015-06-03T12:30:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T16:30:51","slug":"new-security-threat-cryptowall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southjerseytechies.net\/blog\/new-security-threat-cryptowall\/","title":{"rendered":"New Security Threat: CryptoWall"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In October of last year news broke about a new form of malware called Cryptolocker. This malware posed a particularly large threat to many business users and led to many quick and important security updates. Now, almost a year later, it appears that the second version of this \u2013 CryptoWall \u2013 has been released and is beginning to infect users.<\/p>\n

What is Crypto malware?<\/h3>\n

Crypto malware is a type of trojan horse that when installed onto computers or devices, holds the data and system hostage. This is done by locking valuable or important files with a strong encryption. You then see a pop-up open informing you that you have a set amount of time to pay for a key which will unlock the encryption. If you don\u2019t pay before the deadline, your files are deleted.<\/p>\n

When this malware surfaced last year, many users were understandably more than a little worried and took strong precautions to ensure they did not get infected. Despite these efforts, it really didn\u2019t go away until earlier this year, when security experts introduced a number of online portals that can un-encrypt files affected by Cryptolocker, essentially neutralizing the threat, until now that is. A recently updated version is threatening users once again.<\/p>\n

Cryptolocker 2.0, aka. CryptoWall<\/h3>\n

Possibly because of efforts by security firms to neutralize the Cryptolocker threat, the various developers of the malware have come back with an improved version, CryptoWall and it is a threat that all businesses should be aware of.<\/p>\n

With CryptoWall, the transmission and infection methods remain the same as they did with the first version: It is most commonly found in zipped folders and PDF files sent over email. Most emails with the malware are disguised as invoices, bills, complaints, and other business messages that we are likely to open.<\/p>\n

The developers did however make some \u201cimprovements\u201d to the malware that make it more difficult to deal with for most users. These changes include:<\/p>\n