KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Blog

Extortionists Threaten Victims with WannaCry Ransomware

Written by Stu Sjouwerman | Apr 15, 2019 10:37:32 AM

An email extortion scam is threatening victims with DDoS attacks and WannaCry ransomware, according to researchers at Avast. The scammers claim to have hacked the victim’s network and found evidence of tax evasion. They demand two bitcoins, or around $10,000, in exchange for keeping quiet about the illegal activity.

If the victim doesn’t pay up, the scammer will deploy ransomware and launch DDoS attacks against their systems, in addition to notifying law enforcement about the alleged tax evasion. Avast security expert Luis Corrons said this is a new version of a familiar, but effective, scam.

“This is an evolved version of the ‘Police Virus’ or ‘Police Trojan’ which targeted most of Europe in 2011,” said Corrons. “Cyberattackers posed as different law enforcement agencies, even localizing messages in English, German, Dutch, and Spanish, among others. In the message, it claimed to have detected illegal content from that computer and, to avoid prosecution, a €100 fine must be paid.”

Avast’s advice is to ignore these types of emails completely. The scammers haven’t hacked your network; they’re simply trying to frighten gullible people into paying them. New-school security awareness training is the best way to teach your employees how to recognize common extortion tactics.

Security Boulevard has the story: https://securityboulevard.com/2019/04/email-scam-threatens-wannacry-ddos-attack-avast/

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