International Police Association (I.P.A.) infection

Even though usually the prime target countries for the cyber criminals are the United States and the United Kingdom, these days we increasingly find ourselves at odds with the so-called International Police Association (I.P.A.) infection that targets mostly European internet users. It is a Trojan-based ransomware that locks you out of your computer and tries to force you into paying a “fine” for a crime you obviously haven’t committed. So far it is known that up to 13 European countries have been targeted and users had to figure out how to remove Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection from their computers. This infection is directly related to Trojan:Win32/LockScreen.Cl and it changes the language of its interface according to the IP address of the target computer. Thus Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection is known to “speak” German, French, Spanish, Greek and so on.

The strongest weapon of this threat is its appearance. Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection looks so realistic that a lot of users really get scared and pay the fine, especially as the notice contains various accusations of the user watching child pornography or downloading copyrighted files illegally. According to Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection the user sees these warnings, because he has committed a crime and therefore has been locked out of his desktop. So unless he pays $50 or $100 there is no way he can get his Desktop back.

Luckily Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection does not make sophisticated system file modifications; it only works as a regular Trojan that changes only the surface system settings. To put it simply, it only determines what language the message is supposed to be displayed in, and then loads the fake warning message right before your Desktop can load. Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection usually asks to pay the fine in UKash voucher and even though it allows you to choose the amount of money you want to pay (which uncharacteristic or a computer threat), it is still a malicious application you should never EVER pay for it. It would definitely be no different from throwing your money away for nothing.

Here are some examples of the warning message texts in different languages:

Ihr Computer wurde gesperrt
Ihr Computer wurde durch das System der automatischen Informationskontrolle gesperrt

Ten komputer został zablokowany
Ten komputer został zablokowany przez system automatycznej kontroli informacyjnej

Since Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection is not particularly aggressive, you can restart your computer in Safe Mode with Networking and download a computer security program of choice that can help you to erase Internet Police Association (I.P.A.) infection for good. As long as this infection did not enter your computer bundled with other malware, automatic removal should not cause any trouble.

Removal instructions:

Windows 7/Vista:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Continuously press F8 until Advanced Options Menu shows up.
3. Use arrow keys to navigate to Safe Mode with Networking and hit Enter on the keyboard.
4. Go to http://www.pcthreat.com/download-sph and download SpyHunter.
5. Install the program and run a system scan to remove all existing Windows infections.

Windows XP:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Before Windows load up, keep hitting F8 on the keyboard until the Boot Menu shows up.
3. Using arrow keys select Safe Mode with Networking and hit Enter.
4. Click Yes if the “Desktop” alert comes up.
5. Click on the Start menu.
6. Launch RUN.
7. Type “msconfig”.
8. Click OK.
9. Within System Configuration Utility, click on the Startup tab.
10. Uncheck all items and click Apply.
11. Download SpyHunter.
12. Restart the computer and install the automatic virus removal application SpyHunter.