Crypto malware close to being uncrackable
File-encrypting Trojans are becoming so complex that the security companies could soon be powerless to reverse their effects, a new report from Kaspersky Lab has said. The report notes the rapid evolution of the public key encryption used by one family of crypto malware, Gpcode, which went from using 56-bit to 660-bit RSA in a matter of weeks.
Commonly termed "ransomware," Trojans that encrypt data files on a user's PC before demanding a payment in return for supplying the key to unlock the files, have come from nowhere in recent months to become a measurable problem.
At the time of the of its discovery in June Gpcode.ag -- which used a formidable 660-bit key -- Kaspersky described the process required to decrypt such a key as equivalent to setting a 2.2 GHz PC to work for thirty years.
