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#Hackers use Breaking Bad to scam users: Ransomware produces Los Pollos Hermanos-themed threats to extort money By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail. com Published: 00:44 GMT, 12 may 2015 Updated: 00:47 GMT, 12 may 2015 A new Breaking bad-branded ransomware is tricking people into handing over their money. The malware confronts users with a message featuring the Los Pollos Hermanos logo, which is fried a fictional chicken shop in the TV SHOW. It encrypts computer files and then threatens to delete them unless a fee is paid n this case the digital thieves are demanding up to $791 (£540 or AU$1, 000). Security researchers at Symantec recently uncovered the computer virus which they say is sweeping Australia. The hackers style themselves as real-life Walter Whites, the high school chemistry teacher in Breaking Bad who becomes a methamphetamine dealer. As well as asking for money, the demand also features an email address containing one of the show's most famous lines, 'I am the one who knocks'.'Computer users who see the message are directed then to a website that shows them how to buy Bitcoins to pay the hackers. Bitcoins, an online currency that is hard to trace, are becoming the preferred way hackers collect ransoms, according to FBI Special agent Thomas Grasso, who is part of the government's efforts to fight malicious software including ransomware. A Youtube video is opened in the background featuring a song used in a fictional radio station in the game Grand Theft Auto V.'We believe that the crypto ransomware uses social engineering techniques as a means of infecting victims'writes Symantec on its blog.''The malware arrives through a malicious zip archive, which uses the name of a major courier firm in its file name.''This zip archive contains a malicious file called'PENALTY. VBS'(VBS. Downloader. Trojan) which when executed, downloads the crypto ransomware onto the victim's computer.''The threat also downloads and opens a legitimate. pdf file to trick users into thinking that the initial zip archive was not a malicious file.''There is currently no estimate to how many people have been affected by this particular virus . But the FBI says ransomware such as this is a growing problem. The malicious software can attack any user an individual, small business, Fortune 500 company or a government agency. Ransomware infiltrates a computer after a user clicks on a link or attachment in an email. It can also attack when a user visits a website, including well-known ones with good security systems, according to technology consultant Greg Miller of CMIT Solutions of Goshen, New york. Once inside the computer, it encrypts or locks up files, making them impossible to use. It can also lock up a network of computers if it infects a server, a computer that links PCS. During 2013, the number of attacks each month rose from 100,000 in January to 600,000 in December, according to a report last year by Symantec, the maker of antivirus software. Those are the most recent figures available, but cybersecurity experts say the attacks are growing. The company estimates on average, three per cent of users with infected machines pay a ransom r

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