ESET, the global leader in proactive digital protection, has analyzed the first Android OS Filecoder detected by its systems – Android/Simplocker.A. Filecoders are a category of ransomware that encrypt data and demand a ransom in order to regain access to them. This TOR-enabled ransomware is the first Filecoder ever discovered on the Android operating system. ESET’s Researcher Robert Lipovsky has written an article about Simplocker, available at welivesecurity.com/simplocker.
ESET was among the few IT security firms to successfully detect the first sample of this ransomware. “We are most likely dealing with a proof-of-concept or a work in progress,” Lipovsky says in his article. Simplocker encrypts files stored in a device’s memory card and displays a message demanding payment of 260 Ukrainian hryvnia (approximately 16 euros) in order to regain access to them.