The ICE Cyber Crime Center Virus

US Department of Homeland Security is definitely an important institution that is responsible for keeping you safe, but there are areas that are not included in its jurisdiction as well - for example, it cannot get into your computer and lock it down (legally). Thus if your computer is locked down by the ICE Cyber Crimes Center, by no means does it infer that you have breached national laws and now you have been caught red handed by the government. The truth is that you are infected with ICE virus that is a computer ransomware program. It tries to pass for a legitimate law enforcement agency representative in order to convince you that you have to pay a 400 USD fine, otherwise you will be put in jail. Needless to say, that ICE Virus has to be removed from your computer right now, because every single word in its message is a lie.

ICE Virus comes from a huge group of ransomware infections called Ukash Virus infection group. It is from the newest wave of ransomware infections that are distributed by Reveton trojan. It means that your computer might have other infection inside its system aside from the ICE Cyber Crimes Center. Although generally Ukash Virus group infection make use Ukash, PaySafeCard and MoneyPak alternative payment system to collect their payments, ICE Virus only does it via MoneyPak, requiring the aforementioned 400 US dollars. The United States is not the only country targeted by the criminals who develop Ukash Viruses. For example, there are other versions of this infection intended for other countries as well - Datamaskinen Din Er Låst Virus (Norway), Twój Komputer Został Zablokowany Virus (Poland), Confédération Suisse Virus (Switzerland) and so on.

Just like all of the other variants of this malicious program, ICE Virus displays a fake notification about supposed criminal user activity:

The work of your computer has been suspended on the grounds of the violation of the law of the United States of America.

AN ATTEMPT TO UNLOCK THE COMPUTER BY YOURSELF WILL LEAD TO THE FULL FORMATTING OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM. ALL THE FILES, VIDEOS, PHOTOS, DOCUMENTS ON YOUR COMPUTER WILL BE DELETED.

The first violation may not entail the criminal liability if the payment of the fine in connection with the law of loyalty to the people, on [date of infection]. In repeated violations of criminal responsibility is inevitable.

To unlock your computer and to avoid other legal consequences, you are obliged to pay a release fee of $400.

As such, ICE Virus "gives" you 48 hours to pay the fine, before transferring your data to the Department of Homeland Security. Obviously, you have not committed any crime, and these accusations are false. ICE Virus simply wants your money. Your operating system and your personal data is not at formatting risk, you simply need to unlock your computer in order to permanently remove ICE Virus from the system.

How to unlock My Computer:

Windows Vista & Windows 7

1. Reboot the PC and press F8 key continuously once BIOS screen loads.
2. If Windows logo appears, restart your computer and try again.
3. Use arrow keys to navigate and select Safe Mode with Networking using the arrow keys. Press Enter.
4. Go to http://www.pcthreat.com/download-sph and download SpyHunter.
5. Install the program and run full system scan.

Windows XP

1. Follow the steps above from 1 to 3.
2. Click Yes when a confirmation box appears.
3. Download SpyHunter.
4. Click Start Menu button and open Run.
5. Enter "msconfig" and press OK.
6. Select Startup tab on System Configuration Utility.
7. Click Disable all and click OK to save changes.
8. Restart the PC in Normal Mode.
9. Install SpyHunter and proceed with a full system scan to detect ICE Virus.

In case you have any questions regard ICE Virus removal, do leave us a comment below.