ransom
RSS ransom
The ISO is right to back Microsoft's OOXML
Comment We hear, for example, that customers feel as if Microsoft is holding their data to ransom by keeping it locked up in proprietary formats. Amid anger and disbelief, it emerged this week the ISO is ratifying Microsoft's... [04 Apr 2008]
Q&A: Kimmo Alkio, CEO, F-Secure
News There was a lot of talk about extortion a couple of years ago, with criminals threatening to take down businesses' websites if a ransom wasn't paid. Kimmo Alkio, CEO of F-Secure, recently rejoined the antivirus vendor... [01 Jun 2007]
Ransomware on the rise, warns Kaspersky
News Kaspersky said: "This is a dangerous kind of criminal activity, because the attack takes place before the money is transferred," explaining that victims of DDoS attacks have the opportunity to get the police involved before paying a... [07 Feb 2007]
Fair Wi-fi: Hotels must mend their ways
News Walsh said: "Customers are currently held to ransom by expensive third-party wireless and broadband providers, and hotels could use free internet access as a major selling tool to business travellers. [31 Jan 2007]
William Hill fights back against the hackers
News A number of UK bookmakers were targeted by criminal gangs two years ago, who threatened them with denial of service (DoS) attacks that would crash their websites unless they paid a ransom. The entire online betting... [04 Oct 2006]
NHS IT "sleepwalking towards disaster"
News Bacon said: "This programme is costing taxpayers a king's ransom but it is descending into chaos. The government's £12.4bn NHS IT programme is "sleepwalking towards disaster" with suppliers, local trusts and clinical... [11 Sep 2006]
'Ransomware' hackers to go unpunished?
News Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will not be pursuing the criminals who used a Trojan horse program to lock a Manchester woman's files and demanded a ransom to release them. A ransom note instructed her... [05 Jun 2006]
Microsoft's plans for 'new JPEG' leave users cold
News He wrote: "I'm concerned that, sometime in the future, Microsoft may hold my photos for ransom, requiring that I purchase an upgrade to view them. The world is ready for a new photo compression format to rival the... [01 Jun 2006]
NetSuite initiates fight in "software's last battleground"
News I guess with a name like NetSuite you can guess what our opinion is," said Nelson, who claims companies have too many fragmented systems and cannot pay the King's ransom which enterprises shelled out to large integrators... [07 Apr 2006]
Mobile porn at risk of DoS attacks, says Gartner
News Last year, Betfair, along with several other online betting companies, was targeted by cyber criminals threatening DDoS attacks unless a ransom was paid. Network operators and companies looking to provide pornography or... [25 Oct 2005]
Are online firms doing secret deals with DDoS attackers?
News And it's not just the bookmakers who are paying up, Overton said, explaining that one compelling incentive employed by the criminals is to ensure their ransom demands undercut the cost of preventing or cleaning up such... [06 Oct 2005]
Zombies: There are too many of them, says McAfee
News Some attackers use programs to steal financial data, while others attempt to hold a person or group ransom by gaining complete control over a machine or network. Personal computers that play unwitting host to "zombie"... [12 Jul 2005]
Hackers could force ransom victims to do 'dirty work'
News Hackers could try to ransom PC users' data in an attempt to draw then into their schemes and force them to do the thieves' 'dirty work' according to analyst house Gartner. Last week it was revealed that online... [01 Jun 2005]
Leader: Online crime - new tools, old tricks
Leader But ransom is an old crime. They have tried extortion with denial of service attacks on websites, blackmail by threatening to plant child pornography on people's computers and are now holding personal computer files to... [26 May 2005]
Online attackers hold info for ransom
News The program then drops a ransom note. Researchers at Symantec have seen the malicious program used in the ransom attack. In a new type of online attack, extortionists remotely encrypt user files and then... [25 May 2005]
