A WeChat spokesperson said that the company identified the hacker immediately following initial reports of the hack and deactivated the QR code the hacker had been using to accept ransom payments.
Huorong estimated that as of Monday, more than 20,000 people in China had been affected by the virus.Ĭhina’s two most popular mobile payment providers, WeChat and Alipay, responded to the cyberattack on Tuesday. The virus is also capable of stealing user logins to popular online platforms like Taobao, Tmall, Alitalk, Baidu Cloud, JD.com, and QQ. This time, the hacker used such a virus to hijack Windows PCs in China, encrypted documents saved to the desktop, and demanded that ransoms of 110 yuan ($16) be paid by scanning a WeChat QR code that popped up on affected users’ computer screens. Huorong identified the attack as a new type of ransom/bcrypt malware - a malicious software that threatens to publish the victim’s personal data or block access to it unless a ransom is paid. The ransomware - as yet unnamed - was first reported on Saturday by Huorong Security, a company that provides anti-virus software and other network security solutions. But a new kind of hack in mobile-centric China is asking the owners of hijacked computers to transfer money using WeChat, the country’s ubiquitous social platform. In the past, hackers behind notorious ransomware attacks like WannaCry and NotPetya have required their victims to transfer ransom payments using untraceable cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in order to hide their identities from authorities.
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