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Ransomware Hits UK Website, Defaces Homepage

Posted by timothy on from the it's-getting-smarter dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The website of the British Association for Counseling & Psychotherapy has been hit by a variant of the CTB-Locker ransomware. While the ransomware proclaims itself to be CTB-Locker, there are a ton of clues that reveal this may be a fake and this is actually the first ever ransomware family created to target websites and not computers.

17 comments

  1. we're all hostages now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    never a better time to consider ourselves in relation to one another & the process of creation? language of the heart is foolproof...

  2. Hmm by liqu1d · · Score: 2

    Bit of a random target. Wonder if they there's a reason this one was picked. Ie an out of date package or unfortunate coding.

    1. Re:Hmm by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

      Assuming most of the servers now a days are on some kind of virtualized platform, There should be a daily/weekly snapshot with which they could "restore" a new instance.

    2. Re: Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Restore a new instance with the same vulnerability.

    3. Re: Hmm by Sax+Russell+5449D29A · · Score: 1

      Restore a new instance with the vulnerability fixed.

      --
      -SR
  3. Not secure by coastwalker · · Score: 1

    The link to the hacked website returns

    Secure Connection Failed

    The connection to www.bacp.co.uk was interrupted while the page was loading.

            The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
            Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

    --
    Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
    1. Re:Not secure by softnewsit · · Score: 1

      It worked last night. Probably the webmasters got wind of the fact he was pwned via the national press :)))

      --
      Go away!
  4. Not computers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the first ever ransomware family created to target websites and not computers.

    That makes me curious how the British host their websites, if it is not with computers. They have operators whistle the bits in a telephone line or so?

    1. Re:Not computers. by Barny · · Score: 3, Informative

      All gets routed to a Fiji call center where the http requests are received and operators type back to your browser the CSS and HTML. Images are the hard bit, there is a guy with a webcam and a whole pile of photographs, as the requests come in he lines up the right photo and hits the capture button.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    2. Re:Not computers. by jargonburn · · Score: 1
      Either that, or they're really good with oven gloves...

      https://xkcd.com/341/

  5. Version? by namgge · · Score: 1

    I guess this must be the 'CBT-Locker' variant.

  6. Targets Websites NOT computers??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whew I'm so glad my website doesn't run on a computer

  7. Bummer by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    After such an ordeal I guess they'll need counseling and psychotherapy.

  8. wrong website by rjejr · · Score: 1

    They were probably targeting the BBC for pulling Dr Who off of Netflix and Hulu. "Give us back the Tardis or K-9 gets it!"

  9. Obviously by dhaen · · Score: 1

    It's psychological warfare.

  10. Scientology attack British psychotherapy website . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    British Association for Counseling & Psychotherapy

  11. Not the server by tijgertje · · Score: 1

    Most likely that a pc from the organisation got infected and the website got updated from that pc or that the FTP-login got stolen. As a hoster we see "hacked" websites sometimes and it is always the pc of the customer. The server is nicely up to date.