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Research Lab Hit With Ransomware Attack After Student Installs Pirated Software By Tyler Lee, on 05/07/2021 01:52 PDT
hackOfficial software can be expensive, which is why sometimes people turn to piracy because they have no choice. This isn’t to say that this is a justified alternative, but it happens. Unfortunately for a European biomolecular research institute, it seems that one of the decisions by a student working at the lab has resulted in a ransomware attack.
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According to the report, one of the university students that the lab works with decided to download a pirated version of a data visualization software from a warez site. However, it turns out that this pirated version of the software was actually a trojan in disguise that logged keystrokes, stole clipboard history, and passwords.
A student pirating software led to a full-blown Ryuk ransomware attack
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A student s attempt to pirate an expensive data visualization software led to a full-blown Ryuk ransomware attack at a European biomolecular research institute.
BleepingComputer has long warned against software cracks, not only because they are illegal but because they are a common source of malware infections.
Threat actors commonly create fake software crack download sites, YouTube videos, and torrents to distribute malware, as shown below.
Fake crack site distributing ransomware
In the past, we have seen crack sites distribute ransomware, such as STOP and the Exorcist ransomware, cryptocurrency miners, and information-stealing trojans.