If they gave out customer service awards to ransomware developers, the black hats behind the newly discovered ransomware PadCrypt might win the prize.
According to a report from BleepingComputer, PadCrypt is the first ransomware to offer a live support chat feature for victims seeking online assistance with paying their ransom and decrypting locked files. Exposed last Sunday by Swiss security researchers at @abuse.ch, PadCrypt is also the first ransomware program to provide victims with a software uninstaller, which is downloaded along with the malicious encryption code at the time of infection.
PadCrypt is distributed via “spam that contains a link to a zip archive that contains what appears to be a PDF file,” BleepingComputer wrote. But the supposed PDF file is actually an executable that downloads malware from cybercriminals' command-and-control servers. These C&C servers were disabled following their discovery, the report continued.
