All those who are playing the PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds on Xbox One, beware of a ransomware attack called “PUBG Ransomware” which decrypts your entire desktop files. This new ransomware variant was discovered by MalwareHunter Team offering two peculiar options to decrypt files.
Yeah, the author of the game doesn’t want you to pay them a ransom in Cryptocurrency as usual. But want the victims to play the game in order to free up your files. The other option is to input an “s2acxx56a2sae5fjh5k2gb5s2e” a code key into the PUBG program and click the restore button
Although the said ransomware looks like a joke circulating on the dark web, it exists in reality and requires the victims to play a game before the files get decrypted.
Note- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds(PUBG) is a multiplayer online game related to the battlefield and is developed and published by PUBG Corporation which is a subsidiary of BlueHole. The game is said to be based on the 2000 released film Battle Royale and is said to be extremely exciting Xbox One users. Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds is a 2017 released game released by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox One via its Xbox Game Preview Program. In Asia, the game was released by Tencent Games which is a Chinese online game services provider.
All these days, we have observed ransomware attacks via phishing emails and through unsolicited online sources. But now it is strange to find that malware attacks are being propagated through online games. What’s more amusing is that the authors of PUBG Ransomware are not demanding a ransom in cryptocurrency. But are asking (literally forcing) the victims to play the game in exchange for the decryption key.
Wonder where this ransomware evolution will lead….?