If you have never heard the word Ransomware then it is a technique to extort money from people. Basically, attackers hijack your computers or smartphones and install malware inside them. This malware is called Ransomware because the attackers demand ransom from you after that in order to remove that particular malware. If you refuse to do so, they threaten to leak your personal information. In many cases, they also tell you that all your information and data will be lost if you don’t pay the demanded ransom.
This is when people pay money and get the malware removed if they have important data. However, a new type of ransomware has come across which is unique in its own rights. This time around, attackers have started to target players of the popular game Fortnite. This new ransomware called Syrk will encrypt files on your hard drive while deleting entire folders if the ransom is not paid.
An open-source program called Hidden-cry is believed to be the source of this malware which is an encryption program to lock your system. We have also attached the screenshot of ransomware found on a user’s device down below:
As you can see, the attacker threatens to delete the files present on a user’s PC. In order to pay, the user has to send an email on the email ID given and the amount to pay is presumably shared in a secure email exchange as proton mail is an encrypted email provider.
Also, you can see that there is hardly any time given to a user to pay so the user has to act fast. This is done in order to not give user time for researching or taking help from someone who might know how to remove malware from their PC. It is said that about 250M Fortnite users are a prime target for this kind of malware.