Cybercrooks have put together a new scam that falls halfway between ransomware and old school browser lockup ruses.
The new class of “tech support lockers” rely on tricking users into installing either a fake PC optimiser or bogus Adobe Flash update. Once loaded the malware mimicks ransomware and locks users out of their computers. Unlike Locky, CryptoWall and their ilk it doesn’t actually encrypt files on compromised Windows PCs, however.
Jérôme Segura, a senior security researcher at Malwarebytes, said “tech support lockers" represent a class of malware more advanced than browser locks and fake anti-virus alerts of the pre-ransomware past.
"This is not a fake browser pop up that can easily be terminated by killing the application or restarting the PC,” Segura writes in a
blog post. “No, this is essentially a piece of malware that starts automatically, and typical Alt+F4 or Windows key tricks will not get rid of it."
