Not exactly my own person documents, but this woman had her ‘My Documents’ folder held to ransom in an attack quickly becoming known as ‘Ransomware’. Hackers raided her computer in the UK and encrypted her My Documents folder in Windows containing coursework, photographs, personal letters and more.
From the BBC…
A message had appeared on her computer screen telling her she had contracted an unnamed virus.
It is thought the message was part of the scam and she inadvertently downloaded it.
The virus is known as Archiveus and victims are told to buy pharmaceutical drugs from an internet chemist thought to be based in Russia.
Buying drugs from an online pharmacy was going to give her access to the 30 character password she needed to decrypt her files.
You have been warned! Read on at the beeb…
According to the guys at F-Secure (http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-052006.html#00000876) the files aren’t even encrypted, just stored in an archive somewhere. This is so crazy I’d almost want to get this virus! What will they think of next!
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And here it is…the solution…cue choir of angels…
The Password:
mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw
Thanks to Sophos -> http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/06/arhiveus.html