Asustor NAS Products Hit by Deadbolt Ransomware Attack - Unplug Them Now
If you've deployed an Asustor-made NAS (Network Attached Storage) to access your treasure trove of files across the wires of the Internet, you should disconnect it it from the Internet as soon as possible. A number of Asustor users have taken to Reddit and the company's forums, claiming their Asustor-bound files have been claimed and encrypted by a ransomware attack through a Deadbolt payload. This is the same ransomware that wreaked havoc with QNAP's NAS devices a while back.
The attack infects the user's NAS and proceeds to encrypt its contents, leaving each user with a message pointing towards a unique Bitcoin address. The offer: receive the decryption key in exchange for 0.03 Bitcoin (~$1,102, ~€976) - the same value asked at the time of the QNAP attack. Interestingly, Asustor doesn't seem to have received the same offer the perpetrators put forward to QNAP: 5 Bitcoin (~$183,906, ~€162,267) in return for information for the exploit data (€162,799) - or a universal decryption key for all affected users for 50 Bitcoin (~$1,8 million). That last bit there serves to put pressure on the company to pay up for the affected users, which could themselves pressure the company to take the deal.
The attack infects the user's NAS and proceeds to encrypt its contents, leaving each user with a message pointing towards a unique Bitcoin address. The offer: receive the decryption key in exchange for 0.03 Bitcoin (~$1,102, ~€976) - the same value asked at the time of the QNAP attack. Interestingly, Asustor doesn't seem to have received the same offer the perpetrators put forward to QNAP: 5 Bitcoin (~$183,906, ~€162,267) in return for information for the exploit data (€162,799) - or a universal decryption key for all affected users for 50 Bitcoin (~$1,8 million). That last bit there serves to put pressure on the company to pay up for the affected users, which could themselves pressure the company to take the deal.