EC3 Europol Ransomware

Posted: February 15, 2013

Threat Metric

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The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

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% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	2

First Seen:	February 15, 2013
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The EC3 Europol Virus is a ransomware Trojan that exploits the name of a legitimate EU organization to attack your PC, block your desktop and attempt to force you to pay a fraudulent legal fine. Like similar Trojans from the Urausy, Reveton and Winlock families, the EC3 Europol Virus doesn't have any actual legal authority but pretends to be affiliated with a real law enforcement organization with a pop-up warning that claims to have caught you in the act of committing computer-based crimes. However, the EC3 Europol Virus can't detect real crimes, and SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend that you remove EC3 Europol Virus with a dedicated anti-malware program instead of paying a fine that's unlikely to help restore your PC to normal.

EC3 Europol Virus: a Cybercrime Participant Hiding as a Defender Against It

Taking the name of the EU's 'cybercrime' wing of law enforcement, the EC3 Europol Virus is as illegal as all types of malware, but uses imagery and text in its pop-up to try to create the opposite impression on its victims. Probably accessories in EC3 Europol Virus infections include online exploit kits abusing drive-by-downloading techniques and e-mail/IM-based links to harmful website content, although the EC3 Europol Virus's explicit distribution points have yet to be tracked down. SpywareRemove.com malware experts always recommend that you have strong web-browsing security, but particularly if you're eager to avoid the unwanted installation of PC threats like the EC3 Europol Virus.

The EC3 Europol Virus's installation is followed by the display of a fake EC3 Europol pop-up warning whenever Windows restarts (either automatically or manually). In addition to blocking you from using other programs, the EC3 Europol Virus's pop-up will claim to have locked your PC due to its participation in various 'cybercrimes.' This is followed up with a request for a seemingly 'legal' fine through Ukash, Paysafecard or other third party voucher companies.

Taming the Wild, Wild Web of the EC3 Europol Virus

Having security settings that avoid a EC3 Europol Virus infection is, obviously better than needing to remove the EC3 Europol Virus from your computer. Nonetheless, even in cases where the EC3 Europol Virus appears to have frozen your computer, SpywareRemove.com malware research team strongly urges you to avoid paying its illegal fee, which doesn't have any lawful advantages or benefits for your PC. Before you try to delete the EC3 Europol Virus, you should use Safe Mode or other means of disabling EC3 Europol Virus. A safely-disabled EC3 Europol Virus can be deleted with any competent brand of anti-malware scanner.

Although the EC3 Europol Virus is colloquially referred to as a 'virus,' SpywareRemove.com malware analysts also stress that the EC3 Europol Virus is not a true virus by the technical definition. So far, the EC3 Europol Virus hasn't shown any capabilities for self-distribution or infecting other files (although accompanying malware may display the characteristics that a EC3 Europol Virus lacks).

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

notificator.site