Cryptolocker ransomware: A look back at its widespread impact

Thirteen years ago, computer users in the United States began encountering Cryptolocker, a new form of ransomware that, while not the first of its kind, marked a significant moment in public awareness of the threat, based on information published by Smarter MSP.

Cryptolocker initially spread through spam emails containing ZIP files, often using social engineering tactics to trick recipients into opening them. Early methods involved fake customer complaint details, while later campaigns used messages about problematic check transactions or impersonated shipping alerts from UPS and FedEx. These emails often downloaded a Trojan horse, which then installed Cryptolocker and connected the infected computer to a botnet.

Once active, Cryptolocker encrypted users' files, demanding ransom payments, typically in bitcoin. By December 2013, an estimated 250,000 computers were infected, with half of those in the U.S., leading to approximately $27 million in ransom payments. In 2014, Operation Tovar, a multinational effort, successfully disrupted the Gameover Zeus botnet and took down key Cryptolocker servers, though the suspected architect, Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, remains at large.

Source: Smarter MSP