If we needed any more convincing that malware has gone commercial, a new virus making the rounds provides additional evidence. The Trojan horse encrypts a user's documents and then directs the victim to pay US$300 into an e-gold account in return for the password that will unlock the files. It's not clear yet how the virus is spreading, but once installed on the user's PC, the program encrypts word processing documents, databases, and spreadsheets before deleting itself from the machine.

At Ars Technica.

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