Malicious software that takes computer data hostage and then demands a ransom are increasing dramatically. According to anti-virus company Panda Software, the new technique called 'ransomware', that uses programs that prevent people from accessing their own documents, has increased by 30 per cent the last six months. . It first appeared in March with the Zippo.A Trojan horse, which searches for files such as Word documents, databases and spreadsheets, and moves them into password-encrypted ZIP files. Then, it creates another file informing the affected user that they need to pay $300 to recover their data. Since then, a spat of similar Trojans have been released, including Ransom-A, which appeared in April and asked for $10.99, and Arhiveus.A in May which asked people to buy products from an online drugstore. The link for this article located at Webuser is no longer available. . It first appeared in March with the Zippo.A Trojan horse, which searches for files such as Word docu. malicious, software, takes, computer, hostage, demands, ransom, increasing, dramati. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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