The Troj/Arhiveus-A trojan (also known as MayAlert) scoops up files in innocent users' "My Documents" folder and creates a file called EncryptedFiles.als.
When users try to access their files they are directed to a file containing instructions on how to recover the data. The instructions begin:
INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO GET YOUR FILES BACK
READ CAREFULLY. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND - READ AGAIN.This is the automated report generated by auto archiving software.
Your computer caught our software while browsing illegal porn pages, all your documents, text files, databases in the folder My Documents was archived with long password.
You can not guess the password for your archived files - password length is more than 30 symbols that makes all password recovery programs fail to bruteforce it (guess password by trying all possible combinations).
Do not try to search for a program that encrypted your information - it simply does not exist in your hard disk anymore. Reporting to police about a case will not help you, they do not know the password. Reporting somewhere about our email account will not help you to restore files. Moreover, you and other people will lose contact with us, and consequently, all the encrypted information.
To retrieve their files, users must enter a 30 character password which, they are told, is only available after they make purchases from one of three online drug stores.
"The password is deliberately long and complicated in an attempt by the hackers to avoid people easily cracking it. Experts at Sophos have disassembled the Arhiveus Trojan and determined that the password is mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "So there should be no reason for anyone hit by this ransomware attack to have to make any payments to the criminals behind it."
There are no comments on this article yet. 
