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AU: Townsville adult store blackmailed by hackers

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Dissent

Chris McMahon reports:

Queensland’s oldest sex shop has been held to ransom by hackers who infected the store’s computers, locking down all its files with a highly sophisticated malware.

Hackers hit Charters Towers Rd adult shop Sweethearts early on Friday morning through an email that infected the store’s servers, holding their data to ransom until they paid through online currency Bitcoin.

The cyber criminals demanded a little over three Bitcoins, equivalent to about $1058, before they would give the company a key that would unlock the encryption on their files.

A counter appeared on one of the store’s desktops, counting down the hours until the ransom was due. If the ransom demand was not met it would double and continue to do so until the demand was met.

Owner Colin Edwards said he had no choice but to pay the ransom, although he fears the files will not be released.

Read more on news.com.au. It doesn’t appear that the hackers threatened to dump any data – only to keep it locked up.

h/t, @Cyber_War_News

Category: Business SectorMalwareNon-U.S.

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