A new term has been coined, yes indeed..

Ransomeware

That’s what they are calling this new threat, infects your PC then freezes it until you send some people some money.

A new kind of malware circulating on the Internet freezes a computer and then asks for a ransom paid through the Western Union Holdings money transfer service.

A sample of the Trojan horse virus was sent to Sophos, a security vendor, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant. The malware, which Sophos named Troj/Ransom-A, is one of only a few viruses so far that have asked for a ransom in exchange for releasing control of a computer, Cluley said.

Pretty dodgy really, what with being able to buy a Spyware creation kit for $15, now people are coding trojans to make money..

Once run, the Trojan freezes the computer, displaying a message saying files are being deleted every 30 minutes. It then gives instructions on how to send $10.99 via Western Union to free the computer.

Hitting the control, alt, and delete keys will not affect the bug, the virus writer warns. Sophos provides further details at its Web site.

Pretty tight rein, it just shows how sloppy Windows is…and how powerful the API’s are…and how dumb it is to let non-computer literate people using Internet Exploder to run as Administrator..

There was a case similar to this recently.

Last month, a Trojan emerged that encrypts a user’s documents and then leaves a file demanding $300 in exchange for the password to access the information. Victims were instructed to send money to one of 99 accounts run by e-gold, a company that runs a money transfer site.

The password, however, was contained on the infected computer. Sophos cracked it and publicly released it.

I guess they will get more advanced (sadly) as time goes on.