Ransomware Infects ‘Minecraft’ Account Thieves in Japan! Asking Them for $17 Ransom

Ransomware infects "Minecraft" account thieves in Japan as they try to access the credentials of numerous players from the popular gaming title from Mojang Studios.

However, instead of stealing all of these usernames and passwords of "Minecraft" players, little did the thieves know that they were installing ransomware on their machines, as per the report of GamingBible.

It is worth noting that Minecraft is one of the biggest gaming titles today, giving it a massive user base.

To be precise, the game by Mojang Studios, which Microsoft now owns, currently boasts 140 million monthly active users, as per the data last Aug.

That said, cybercriminal groups capitalize on the massive active players to increase their chances of targeting more victims.

As such, previously, last June 13 to be exact, hackers went on to spread dangerous malware in the modded version of "Minecraft."

Ransomware Infects 'Minecraft' Account Thieves in Japan

This time around, hackers are attempting to steal the accounts of Minecraft players, but they seem to have failed to do so.

According to a report by a cybersecurity company known as Fortinet, "Minecraft" players are being infected by a new type of ransomware in Japan as they try to steal accounts from other folks.

Chaos Ransomware: How it Works

The new variant of ransomware dubbed Chaos fools its victims as it pretends to be a file that contains tons of "Minecraft" account credentials, containing both the passwords and usernames of multiple players.

But in reality, the said file is mere ransomware that seeks to encrypt the files of its victims for them to pay ransom to the attackers.

However, it is worth noting that this type of ransomware goes on to destroy all of the files that are more than 2MB.

It comes as the malware writes random bytes to these sets of files, which means that it could no longer be recovered even if the victims decided to pay the ransom.

On the other hand, files under 2MB could still be retrieved as the malware encrypts them by adding random characters to the file extension.

Ransom Note to "Minecraft" Thieves

After concluding the encryption process, the ransomware gang has a polite message to its victims, noting that the ransom is to the tune of $17 or 2,000 yen, which could be paid in Bitcoin.

The attackers went on to issue an apology to the victims. On top of that, the ransom note also states that the group is only open for communication on Saturdays.

It is to note that the absence of hefty ransom, as well as the apologetic tone of the attackers, are not the usual traits of ransomware schemes.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris