STAR SYSTEMS HELD TO RANSOM BY MALWARE
by Hazed
A virulent new strain of malware is threatening to cut whole star systems off from the rest of the Galaxy, the Galactic Administration has warned – and it’s being spread like wildfire by careless ship owners.
According to a security announcement made by the GA’s Cyber Security Department today, GalacticCryptoLocker infects the navigation computers of ships where the security is not up to date. It then transmits itself into the computers of any interstellar link the ship passes through while jumping through hyperspace, where it takes control of the link, and then holds the star system to ransom by locking the link up so no ships can use it to leave the system. It still allows them to jump in, but not out.
As a result, infected systems have large numbers of ships clogging up their planetary orbits, waiting impatiently for the problem to reside. Traders with perishable cargoes are seeing their potential profits disappear and anyone on tight delivery deadlines is going to incur huge penalties for being late.
The only way to get the link working again is for the owner of the star system to pay a hefty ransom to the criminals behind this virus. Those who have done so tend to keep quiet about it so it’s not known what magnitude of sums are being demanded, but speculation is that the unfortunate POs are being asked hand over many gigagroats in order to regain control of their links.
Attempts to eradicate the malware without paying have been unsuccessful – not least because the way it is transmitted by ships means that even if it’s removed from the link, the equipment will get re-infected the first time a ship carrying the malware passes through.
A Galactic Administration spokesman said that at this time there is no way to vaccinate links against the malware, but that ship owners should be vigilant in keeping their security software up to date. He warned that new POs whose star systems have just been linked in are probably safe; the hackers appear to be targetting older systems whose security is more likely to be out of date, and which are richer so more able to pay.
Clinx Gargleplex, a security expert from Rigel IV, said that he knew for a fact that system had been hit by the malware and that Pugwash, the notoriously lazy PO, had been forced to pay up. However, we were unable to contact Pugs for confirmation.
Meanwhile, a source who wishes to remain anonymous is pointing the finger (or equivalent) at the shadowy SpyNet organisation, whose above board information services include the personal reports you can get on other citizens of Fed DataSpace and the daily reviews of useful information, but who are also known to conduct more clandestine operations. When asked if the organisation was responsible, a SpyNet spokesdroid simply refused to comment.
But they would, wouldn’t they!
