Reveton Ransomware Family of Malware Still Being Used by Several Hacker Gangs

There is a plethora of police virus ransomware scams circulating vulnerable PCs around the world. Authorities have come down hard on an Eastern European hacker gang accused of exploiting the Reveton family of popularized police virus-type ransomware scams, but Reveton continues to chug along as the choice threat for several hacker gangs.

Reveton, a widely popularized group of police virus ransomware threats including the Ukash Virus family, is comprised of a multitude of misleading message threats that all exploit a police or law enforcement entity to force victimized PC users into succumbing to what appears to be a notice of illegal activity detection. Back in February of 2013, Spanish police arrested a group that was believed to be the backbone of the Reveton malware. Though it was a big blow to Reveton, the full spectrum of the virtual ransomware threat bomb was not completely defused.

New figures from research performed by PandaLabs for the first quarter of 2013 show that the malware rates surrounding Reveton have surmounted to new heights during January and February. After the fact, the Reveton ransomware looks to have been adjusted to steal passwords using keylogging methods resulting from victims paying the ransom. Through a recent Microsoft analysis, Reveton was allegedly discovered to have these new-found features, which may make it a more lethal type of malware and not one that just asks for a fine to be paid.

It has not been completely confirmed, but the gang arrested back in February looks to be just one small force behind Reveton as it gets an overhaul to the malware to ramp up its efforts to extort money and now steal passwords from victims.

There is a trace of evidence, although not put into any specific numbers that Reveton is still being developed and transformed into a reemerging threat. In addition to Reveton-type malware having password stealing abilities, it has been found where variations of Reveton could include the ability to encrypt files on compromised systems. This puts Reveton and any related type of malware threat on another playing field armed with many more aggressive techniques for exploiting victims in more ways than one.