A new malware was discovered a few days ago by Trend Micro. The company's researchers named this new malware “Virobot ransomware”, and they discovered it on September 17. Virobot, after infecting a computer, “locks” it and then joins it in a huge botnet with the rest of the computers.
Virobot ransomware is a powerful tool that encrypts all the files on the computer it infects, asking the user to pay if they want to see their files again. Botnets are also often found in malware, where hackers can carry out attacks such as DDoS or credential stuffing.
Similarly, the Virobot malware, after encrypting the computer's files, "throws up" a window in which it asks the user to pay approximately $520 in bitcoin. However, until the user decides what to do, the infected system does not remain idle. Using Microsoft's Outlook, each infected computer starts up and sends spam emails to all contacts stored in the user's client. The emails contain a copy of the Virobot malware, in an attempt to spread even further and expand the botnet.
Finally, it is important to mention that Trend Micro managed to "take down" the server through which the botnet communicated, and therefore, the encryption process will not be performed on computers that are infected from now on.
Ransomware caused a lot of damage in 2017. One of the most famous is the Wannacry ransomware, which infected hundreds of thousands of systems around the world in a short period of time, encrypting users' files. Based on tools leaked by the NSA, it is one of the most powerful ransomware in history.
