SABAM Virus

The SABAM Virus is part of a family of malware that contains numerous variants of Winlocker ransomware Trojans. Such malware infections are programmed to appropriate the victim's machine blocking access to all files and components on the infected computer, and display a ransom message demanding the disbursement of a big sum of money in order to regain control over the infected computer. The SABAM Virus attack is not different from other ransomware. This infection's ransom message claims to be an official notification from SABAM, a real organization dedicated to protecting intellectual property rights located in Belgium. It is valuable to note that the SABAM Virus' message is not associated with this organization, despite the fact that SABAM is a legitimate association of artists, performers and publishers. Criminals use the logo of SABAM to give legitimacy to their scam, which is designed to target computers with a Belgian IP address.

Ransomware attacks are not uncommon. Today, they account for a large percentage of all malware attacks around the world. These had been used to attack computers in the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe as early as 2005. In between 2009 and 2011, they started spreading to most of Western Europe. In early 2012, the first variants of these kinds of attacks started popping up in North America. Today, there are variants of ransomware Trojans that specifically target most developed countries around the world. In this case, the SABAM Virus targets Belgian computers. SABAM Virus claims that the infected computer was blocked because it contained illegally copied media files (which is the case with most computers today). Then, SABAM Virus demands a payment of one hundred euros in order to unblock the infected computer. According to ESG security researchers, paying the SABAM Virus fee will do nothing to unblock your computer or remove this threat from your hard drive.

The main problem in recovering from a SABAM Virus infection is gaining access to your security software. To do this, ESG malware researchers advise affected computer users to use an alternate start-up method to access Windows. This includes starting up Windows from an external drive or using Safe Mode with the command line in order to access the Registry Editor or other Windows components. Once the SABAM Virus message is bypassed, removing this malware infection is a simple matter of using a fully updated anti-malware application to scan your computer.