EC3 Europol

Western Europe is one of the main targets of ransomware infections today. This is apparent in the large number of ransomware variants with European targets, most of which require payment of the ransom using Ukash, a European money transfer system that is not directly associated with these kinds of criminal activities. While many ransomware families tend to target specific countries in Europe, altering their messages' languages and wording so that they correspond with each particular country, the EC3 Europol Virus claims to be a message from the European police cybercrime division, making the EC3 Europol Virus a threat to computer users all throughout Europe. Computer users need to understand that the EC3 Europol Virus is not associated in any way with EC3 or Europol and that the EC3 Europol Virus is actually part of a well known online scam.

Common Sources of an EC3 Europol Virus Infection

Despite the name used to refer to the EC3 Europol Virus, this malware infection is not actually a virus. Viruses are designed to spread on their own, corrupting files and making copies of themselves. Rather, the EC3 Europol Virus is a Trojan because the EC3 Europol Virus relies on other forms of malware or on deception in order to spread from one computer to another. The most common ways in which the EC3 Europol Virus spreads include the following:

• Attack websites that use malicious scripts to exploit vulnerabilities in their victims' computers in order to inject the EC3 Europol Virus into their visitors' computers.
• Malicious email spam attachments that actually install the EC3 Europol Virus when downloaded and executed.
• Malicious advertisements or fake pornographic content that requires computer users to download a fake Adobe flash update, video codec or file. In reality, this file almost always turns out to be a malware infection, such as the EC3 Europol Virus.

The EC3 Europol Virus scam is a variant of an online scam that ESG security researchers have observed numerous times before. The EC3 Europol Virus threatens the victim by claiming that their computer was involved in illegal activities and that their computer has been blocked until further notice. Posing as a message from the European police, the EC3 Europol Virus demands the payment of a fine of hundreds of Euros in order to unlock the victim's computer. Of course, spending money with the ransom will not remove the EC3 Europol Virus from your computer or return your access to your files and Desktop.