‘Police Department University of California’ Ransomware

Posted: March 7, 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:	10,954
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	412

First Seen:	March 10, 2014
Last Seen:	August 23, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware is a fake Police Trojan that claims that your computer has been blocked as a penalization for your indulgence in common, copyright-infringing crimes, such as downloading protected media files. While the pop-up message involved in this attack claims that a two hundred USD payment is required before your PC can be unlocked, malware experts find no benefit to making this payment – considering that the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware is an illegal program without any real ties to any state's police department. Like all kinds of ransomware, you can remove the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware by first acting to disable the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware, and then use anti-malware products to expunge the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware before the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware can lock your PC down again.

A Pricey Key to Unlock the Cuffs of this Californian Police Department

The rise in region-specific fraudulent Police Trojans has been observable for several years now, and the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware exemplifies how criminals may make minor variants of threats that are tailored to particular states, districts and even counties. Malware experts still are attempting to ascertain any related threatening software to the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware, but have observed similar PC threats targeting most other states within the US, particularly via the 'Cyber Command of [State Name]' Ransomware family.

The 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware is installed through methods that disguise its true nature, such as through fake codec updates, security patches and other procedures that initiate contact through your Web browser. However, after being installed, there's no mistaking the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware's presence, which will load a desktop-wide pop-up warning that's meant to block you from using other applications, shortcuts or the Windows taskbar.

Although the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware's warning message claims that this action was done lawfully, as a penalty against illegal actions associated with your PC, malware experts verified that the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware may launch this attack on any compatible PC, including completely 'innocent' systems. Accordingly, paying the MoneyPack fee the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware demands (one of several payment methods preferred by fake Police Trojans) will not help you 'avoid other legal consequences' or even remove the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware from your computer.

The Not-So-Pricey Key to Unlock the Cuffs of this Californian Police Department

The system-locking attack in use by the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware may be a major inconvenience, but it hardly is an insurmountable one, and, in particular, isn't a good reason to surrender any money to the criminals behind the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware's attack campaign. If your PC is locked down by the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware, malware researchers would suggest restarting your PC from a backup operating system, along with making use of the Safe Mode feature. By using these steps to block the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware's from launching automatically, you'll place yourself in a position to delete the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware with an appropriate anti-malware solution.

The 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware and similar fake Police Trojans may abuse corrupted websites, hacked websites and compromised advertisement networks for distributing themselves. However, if you keep your browser settings at safe levels, avoid potentially corrupted websites and have anti-malware products with Web protection, your chances of seeing the 'Police Department University of California' Ransomware blocking your screen will remain low.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

C:\ProgramData\[RANDOM NUMBERS]\

File name: C:\ProgramData\[RANDOM NUMBERS]\
Group: Malware file

%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe

File name: %UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

"description": "Track packages from popular shippersrealtimepackagetracker.com