- Apr 13, 2013
- 3,150
When the "Holy Spirit" speaks, most people listen and take heed of what is said. But if that same spirit takes over our computers, and then asks for a donation for church repairs before it will let you have your computer back, what would you do then?
Most of us get requests for donations through the mail, or on occasion, on the telephone. But there's a new method being used in the Russian Federation today. A new Trojan virus has been infecting computers, locking them up and demanding a donation for church repairs. While the victim may feel the urge to pray that they haven't lost everything on their hard drive, the malware claims to be acting in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. Actually it's the Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Dapato.dggc virus, and it claims to be moved by the last of the three aspects of the Trinity to lock up user's files.
Kaspersky Labs, a Russian computer security company, says the Russian language virus is circulating as a .zip archive, and contains a bunch of unspecified court documents, allegedly for the hapless user. So far, the computer hackers behind the spirit-virus have not been identified. The same ploy in getting someone to give up a few rubles is used by beggars in Russia. They dress up as priests and pretend to ask for donations for church needs. The Russian Orthodox Church has not officially made any comments about the allegedly pious virus, as yet, but Russia is going through a religious revival, with polls indicating there is an upward spiral in the number of "believers" today.
While this particular virus may seem to be amusing, it isn't. This malware is actually all over the web. It is used in a sophisticated way to get money out of individuals, companies and corporations. This malware is not new, either. With malware authors writing more clever and vicious programs, it has become a major problem. Basically, with this type of Trojan virus, the computer user may be browsing the web, or looking through important files when the computer locks up. Many of these Trojans are able to encrypt your files with a password which you don't have, Then they ask for money within a certain length of time or you will lose all your data. There is even a clock, or timer that counts down the hours you are given until the big blank screen hits you. If you have a good security system, it will clean up the virus, but your data will still be encrypted, and that's not good. So maybe we should all pray the Holy Spirit doesn't hit our computers, or for that matter, we don't get hit with any of these sicko viruses.
Most of us get requests for donations through the mail, or on occasion, on the telephone. But there's a new method being used in the Russian Federation today. A new Trojan virus has been infecting computers, locking them up and demanding a donation for church repairs. While the victim may feel the urge to pray that they haven't lost everything on their hard drive, the malware claims to be acting in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. Actually it's the Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Dapato.dggc virus, and it claims to be moved by the last of the three aspects of the Trinity to lock up user's files.
Kaspersky Labs, a Russian computer security company, says the Russian language virus is circulating as a .zip archive, and contains a bunch of unspecified court documents, allegedly for the hapless user. So far, the computer hackers behind the spirit-virus have not been identified. The same ploy in getting someone to give up a few rubles is used by beggars in Russia. They dress up as priests and pretend to ask for donations for church needs. The Russian Orthodox Church has not officially made any comments about the allegedly pious virus, as yet, but Russia is going through a religious revival, with polls indicating there is an upward spiral in the number of "believers" today.
While this particular virus may seem to be amusing, it isn't. This malware is actually all over the web. It is used in a sophisticated way to get money out of individuals, companies and corporations. This malware is not new, either. With malware authors writing more clever and vicious programs, it has become a major problem. Basically, with this type of Trojan virus, the computer user may be browsing the web, or looking through important files when the computer locks up. Many of these Trojans are able to encrypt your files with a password which you don't have, Then they ask for money within a certain length of time or you will lose all your data. There is even a clock, or timer that counts down the hours you are given until the big blank screen hits you. If you have a good security system, it will clean up the virus, but your data will still be encrypted, and that's not good. So maybe we should all pray the Holy Spirit doesn't hit our computers, or for that matter, we don't get hit with any of these sicko viruses.
