Trojan Horse attack on computers in Slovakia

SOFTWARE company Eset detected new attacks which infect the computers of users from central and eastern Europe, as well as Latin America, via email on January 20. One of the most affected countries is also Slovakia where it targets not only households, but also companies, the TASR newswire reported.

The infection occurs if a user opens the attachment to the email. The subject of the message evokes the impression that it is a fax message, Pablo Ramos, researcher at Eset, explained. After opening the attachment, the unprotected computer downloads the harmful code whose aim is to launch a Trojan Horse, known as CTB-Locker.

The virus then encrypts all the file on the infected computer. The creators of the virus then ask €1,500 (or eight bitcoins) for deciphering the computer, as reported by TASR.

It is not possible to break the coding of the BTC-Lockery. The infected user therefore cannot get to the encrypted files. There are, however, several ways to protect the computers from the attack, like turning on the junk mail, not opening the attachments of dubious mails or using up-to-date antivirus protection, experts of Eset said, as reported by TASR.

Source: TASR

Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports

The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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