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New Ransomware Locks Your Files Unless You Play 'PUBG'

'I don’t want money! Just play PUBG 7 hours!' the ransomware says.
Image: MalwareHunterTeam

Everyone loves PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and one piece of ransomware seems to love it so much it’s willing to lock down your computer’s files until you spend quality time with the game. First spotted by MalwareHunterTeam and first reported by BleepingComputer, PUBG Ransomware is a bizarre program that encrypts a user’s desktop files—including all subdirectories—with a .PUBG extension.

“Your files is encrypted by PUBG Ransomware! but don’t worry! It is not hard to unlock it,” splash screen for the program says. “I don’t want money! Just play PUBG 1 hours!” The program also offers up a code that allows users to unlock their files without slogging through hours of the battle royale shooter.

According to BleepingComputer, the program monitors the computer to see if the TsLGame executable ever runs. Seven hours of gameplay aren’t required, and once the program starts up the files start to unlock. It’s not a very sophisticated piece of software as any old .exe renamed to TslGame will work.

It’s a funny bit of Ransomware that’s probably a joke, but I wouldn’t seek it out. Without a deep dive into its code, there’s no telling what else PUBG Ransomware is doing in the background. Besides, playing PUBG on the PC is a waste of time now that the mobile version is out.

Correction: This article originally stated that the ransomware required 7 hours of PUBG gameplay. It only requires one hour; we originally misread a low-res screenshot of the ransomware.