Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware

Canadian malware researchers have warned computer users about a recent ransomware attack that has been targeting computer users in this North American country. As of April of 2012, various Canadian computer users have experienced attacks from Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware in the form of abusive pop-up messages claiming that the victim's computer system was involved in illegal activities. Known as the Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware scam, this is a simple variant of a common ransomware scam that has targeted computer systems all around the world.

The Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware impersonates a message from the famous Canadian police agency. This message will claim that the victim's computer system was blocked because of its involvement in illegal activities, and demands the payment of a ransom in order to give back control of the infected computer system to the victim. It is important to understand that the Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware message absolutely has no connection to the Candian police force and is caused by a kind of malware infection known as a Winlocker.

Understanding the Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware Scam

The Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware message claims that the infected computer system was involved in activities related to child pornography. Then Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware takes the victim's computer system hostage and refuses to relinquish control until a $250 Canadian dollar payment is made via Ukash (a money transfer service like PayPal or Western Union). While this is not a laughable amount, it is quite ridiculous that a severe offense like child pornography would be punished with a mere fine of $250 dollars!

There are numerous variants of the Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware, often pretending to display messages corresponding to the target IP's country's police force. The main problem with the Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware infection is that Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware blocks access to the victim's files, Task Manager, Start Menu and Command Line, effectively blocking the infected computer system completely. In case of a Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware infection, ESG security analysts recommend rebooting the infected computer system from an external memory device, a different operating system, or in Safe Mode (which may not always work). This will prevent the Royal Canadian Mount Police (RCMP) Ransomware infection from running automatically, giving the computer user the opportunity to access their anti-malware software.