Gaming: New Ransomware Spotted With A 'coding Mistake' That Means Even The...
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Ransomware is a nasty bit of malware. Effectively, it locks down your device, and the only way of potentially getting access back is by paying hackers to get it removed. At least, that's what ransomware is supposed to be. Recently, a new one has been spotted that couldn't be removed even if the hackers wanted to.
Nitrogen's ESXi ransomware, as spotted by Coveware (via The Register), has a "coding mistake in the ESXi malware [that] causes it to encrypt all the files with the wrong public key, irrevocably corrupting them."
Effectively, once ransomware gets into your device (often via suspicious links or PC vulnerabilities), it then encrypts your valuable files and stores a randomly generated key that only it knows. That key can then be used to decrypt files. It's like someone who spots you removing your lock from a locker and putting theirs on instead. Thus, affected users are forced to fork out cash to bad actors on the chance they can actually get the files back.
Source: PC Gamer
