‘M.M.A.Δ’ Ransomware

Posted: August 13, 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.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% 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.

Ranking:	1,328
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	67,909

First Seen:	August 13, 2013
Last Seen:	October 16, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Highly reminiscent of the previously-analyzed the 'Cyprus Police Emergency Response Unit' Virus, the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware is a fake Police Trojan that displays illegitimate warning messages that claim to be sent by the M.M.A.Δ. (or Cyprus Police-Emergency Response Unit). Although the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware is not really authorized by the Cypriot police and cannot initiate any kind of legal action against your computer, the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware will block you from using Windows or other programs – seemingly until you pay the ransom the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware demands. However, SpywareRemove.com malware experts never encourage rewarding criminals for designing Police Ransomware Trojans like the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware, and can recommend a combination of baseline security strategies and anti-malware tools to delete the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware without making any payments into its illegal ransom scam.

Why Your Local Police Seem to Be Policing Your Desktop

The 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware does not have any legitimate legal authority of its own, but, nonetheless, displays fake legal warnings that reference the national police of Cyprus in hopes that you'll believe its message without considering the low probability of the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware actually being a legal program. Although the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware specifically references the Cypriot police and includes warnings translated into Greek, its warning message is, in most respects, cloned from similar pop-ups of related fake Police Trojan from other countries. As examples of the multicultural aims of the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware's family, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers also can point out similar examples like the 'Arma dei Carabinieri' Ransomware, the 'FEDPOL BundesKriminalPolizei' Ransomware, the 'Nemzeti Nyomozó Iroda' Ransomware,the 'Dirección Nacional de Policía Técnica' Virus, the 'Policajny Zbor Slovenskej Republiky' Ransomware, the 'Služba Kriminální Policie a Vyšetřování' Ransomware and the 'Police Judiciaire Fédérale' Ransomware.

The 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware's 'legal alert,' which actually is a modified browser window that's no different from any other pop-up (except for the fact that you can't close it), claims that your computer has been locked for illegal activities in a warning that's largely copied from related Police Ransomware Trojans of other nations. However, this attack is launched without any regard for your real Internet-usage history and should be considered fraudulent by default. The 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware's pop-up is intended to serve the dual purpose of blocking you from using other applications and also forcing you to pay a ransom fee, although SpywareRemove.com malware experts can note several ways of removing the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware without paying this fake fee.

The Free Escape Route from 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware's not-So-Legal Attacks

Since the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware doesn't have the authority of the 'M.M.A.Δ' and can't enact any legal punishments on their behalf, SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend ignoring the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware's ransom demand and deleting the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware through the same methods you'd apply to other advanced types of malicious software. Booting into Safe Mode, booting to the Command Prompt or booting through any removable device (such as a CD or USB drive) can help you prevent the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware from launching its pop-up and Windows lockdown. Anti-malware software then should be able to remove the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware without any additional trouble.

The 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware, obviously, targets its scam towards residents of Cyprus, but its family has (as noted previously) been known for attacking a broad range of other countries, both in Europe and outside of it. SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend all appropriate security features and software for defending against potential infection routes for the 'M.M.A.Δ' Ransomware and its relatives, which usually involve exploit kits or Trojan droppers that install these Police Ransomware Trojans automatically.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

fast-travel.org