‘Pirated Software has been Detected’ Ransomware

Posted: November 28, 2014

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

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:	16,483
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	1,166

First Seen:	December 1, 2014
Last Seen:	January 9, 2025
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware is a Windows locker Trojan that may block access to your desktop through a fraudulent legal alert or replace your files with copies of itself. While the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware claims to be authorized by various legal institutions to block files on your computer, in fact, the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware is a threat. As such, its threats to your data and person should be disregarded. You can recover your data once you've deleted the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware through typical anti-malware solutions.

The Cure to Software Piracy that's Worse than the Disease

The 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware is a Trojan that was seen targeting English and French-speaking victims, with minor variants in its pop-up formats to accommodate relevant legal references and differing languages. The 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware always may be identified by its pop-up attacks, which, like those of similar ransomware, load when Windows starts. By default, these pop-ups accuse the PC user of being associated with the crime of software piracy. During the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware's attack, you may be prevented from accessing the Windows desktop or other files on your PC.

Along with the warning text, the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware also claims to have encrypted the files on your PC to make them unreadable. This encryption supposedly can be resolved by paying its fraudulent legal fee. In reality, malware researchers were able to confirm that the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware is not one of the few Windows locker Trojans capable of file encrypting attacks. Instead, the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware imitates such an attack by replacing your original files (such as DOC, JPG or MP3 files) with fake EXE dummies. These dummy files may be 'junk data' or duplicates of the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware.

Sending the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware Sailing Off the Horizon

The 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware is less of a threat to its victims than the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware may appear to be and doesn't have any ability to detect any threatening activity associated with your PC. For the moment, malware experts have not traced the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware's distribution campaign back to its roots. However, most ransomware-based campaigns have been known for using common infection vectors including corrupted website scripts and e-mail attachments.

Because there's nothing to gain from paying the fee demanded by the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware to 'restore' your files, you should respond to its presence identically to any other threatening infection. Reboot your PC in Safe Mode and utilize anti-malware tools to delete all copies of the 'Pirated Software has been Detected' Ransomware. After its removal, you can take any other steps needed to restore your files and any system settings related to their ransom.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

newvideo-search.com