CryptoLocker: Pac-Man Fever

Two things about CryptoLocker.

1. The price of Bitcoin has been wildly volatile lately. And that type of commodity volatility affects Bitcoin’s ability to act as a currency because prices are quickly driven out of whack. Even for ransomware such as CryptoLocker.

Here’s a screenshot from a November 20th variant:

The price of decryption is now 0.5 BTC.

Just a few weeks ago, the going rate was two Bitcoin.

2. This is the wallpaper CryptoLocker sets:

While the text shown above notes the destruction of “your private key” — it isn’t actually destroyed.

The site from which CryptoLocker can be downloaded also offers a “Decryption Service” that can be accessed after the countdown. (But you’ll have to pay more.) Because the service isn’t tied to a particular computer, a file must be uploaded in order for the service to match it with a key.

Uploading a file includes “Pac-Man” animation while you wait:

Somebody likes classic video games…

On 21/11/13 At 05:31 PM

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