The next in the never ending series of Locky downloaders is an email with the subject of\u00a0 Please Pay Attention coming or pretending to come from random companies, names and email addresses\u00a0 with a semi-random named zip attachment in the format of SCAN_recipient\u2019s name.zip<\/p>\n
They\u00a0use email addresses and subjects that will entice a user to read the email and open the attachment. A very high proportion are being targeted at small and medium size businesses, with the hope of getting a better response than they do from consumers.<\/p>\n
2\u00a0December\u00a0\u00a02016 : SCAN_ard.zip: Extracts to:\u00a0-uvk3166985727v.js\u00a0\u00a0Current Virus total detections<\/u><\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0MALWR<\/u> shows a download of\u00a0\u00a0an encrypted file from\u00a0<\/strong>which is\u00a0converted by the script to\u00a05viAGx9N.zk\u00a0(\u00a0VirusTotal<\/a><\/u>)\u00a0 | \u00a0Payload Security<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Locky has recently started to use non standard file extensions on the binaries. Sometimes they are numbers like 342, 343, 552 or sometimes tdb or .zk. All of these are actually DLL files that rundll32.exe will run via the macro or VBS \/ JS \/WSF scripting file telling it to.<\/p>\n They\u00a0use email addresses and subjects that will entice a user to read the email and open the attachment. A very high proportion are being targeted at small and medium size businesses, with the hope of getting a better response than they do from consumers.<\/p>\n One of the \u00a0emails looks like:<\/p>\n From<\/strong>: Claud Hopper <Hopper.Claud@jvaclub.com><\/p>\n Date<\/strong>: Fri 02\/12\/2016 09:35<\/p>\n Subject<\/strong>: Please Pay Attention<\/p>\n Attachment<\/strong>: SCAN_ard.zip<\/p>\n Body content<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Greetings! Informing you that the contractor requires including VAT in the service receipt.<\/em><\/p>\n Sending the new invoice and payment details in the attached file.<\/em><\/p>\n Please open and study it as soon as possible \u2013 we need your decision.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Screenshot<\/strong>:<\/p>\n These\u00a0malicious attachments normally have a password stealing component, with the aim of stealing your\u00a0bank, PayPal or other financial details along with your\u00a0email or FTP ( web space) log in credentials. Many of them are also designed to specifically steal your Facebook and other social network log in details. A very high proportion are Ransomware versions that encrypt your files and demand money ( about \u00a3350\/$400) to recover the files.<\/p>\n \u00a0All the alleged senders, amounts, reference numbers, Bank codes, companies, names of employees, employee positions, email addresses and phone numbers mentioned in the emails are all random. Some of these companies will exist and some won\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t try to respond by phone or email, all you will do is end up with an innocent person or company who have had their details spoofed and picked at random from a long list that the bad guys have previously found. The bad guys choose companies, Government departments and organisations \u00a0with subjects that are designed to entice you or alarm you into blindly opening the attachment or clicking the link in the email to see what is happening. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Please read our\u00a0How to protect yourselves page<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>for simple, sensible advice on how to avoid being infected by this sort of socially engineered malware.<\/p>\n Previous campaigns over the last few weeks have delivered\u00a0numerous\u00a0different download sites and malware versions. There are\u00a0frequently 5 or 6 and even up to 150 \u00a0download locations on some days,\u00a0sometimes\u00a0delivering\u00a0the exactly same malware from all locations and sometimes slightly different\u00a0malware versions. Dridex \/Locky\u00a0does update at frequent intervals during the day, sometimes as quickly as every hour, so you might get a different version of these nasty Ransomware or\u00a0\u00a0Banking password stealer Trojans.<\/p>\n This is another one of the\u00a0 files that unless you have \u201cshow known file extensions enabled<\/u><\/a>\u201c,\u00a0can easily be mistaken for \u00a0a genuine \u00a0DOC \/ PDF \/ JPG\u00a0or other common file instead of the .EXE \/ .JS\u00a0file it really is, so making it much more likely for you to accidentally open it and be infected.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Be very careful with email attachments. All of these emails use\u00a0Social engineering<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>tricks to persuade you to open the attachments that come with the email. Whether it is a message saying \u201clook at this picture of me I took last night\u201d and it appears to come from a friend or is more targeted at somebody who regularly is likely to receive PDF attachments or Word .doc attachments or any other common file that you use every day.<\/p>\n The basic rule is\u00a0NEVER\u00a0<\/strong>open any attachment to an email, unless you are expecting it. Now that is very easy to say but quite hard to put into practice, because we all get emails with files attached to them. Our friends and family \u00a0love to send us pictures of them doing silly things, or even cute pictures of the\u00a0children or pets.<\/p>\n