A new ransomware variant prevents infected computers from loading Windows by replacing their master boot record. The MBR is a piece of code that resides in the first sectors of the hard drive and starts the boot loader. Instead of starting the Windows boot loader, the rogue MBR asks users to deposit a sum of money into a particular account via an online payment service called QIWI. This type of malware is considered the next step in the evolution of scareware, malicious programs that scare users into paying money.”]