Ransomware – malicious software that encrypts your files and then demands payment to unlock them – has become a major scourge of the Windows world.
Mac users just had their first brush with such threats last week, with the appearance of the KeRanger ransomware. However, shortly before KeRanger, I encountered a ransomware event in the Mac world far worse than anything seen for Windows.
This hack seems to have turned an iMac into an expensive paperweight.
A woman named Ericka contacted me, telling me that her Mac was locked by ransomware. At first, I thought this might be one of countless web-based scams out there, pretending to be ransomware, but easy to get rid of.
However, there was an added wrinkle: Ericka said her computer was asking for a six-digit code, and that a Russian hacker was asking for payment in exchange for the code. This sounded like more than a simple scam pop-up.
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