Virus to PC Owner: "Pay $200 Or I Download the Paris Hilton Sex Tape and Play it Endlessly to the Macarena"

These folks are such compelling thieves you'd think they were Bush-loyal Republicans. From CNN:

Computer users already anxious about viruses and identity theft have new reason to worry: Hackers have found a way to lock up the electronic documents on your computer and then demand $200 over the Internet to get them back.

Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. uncovered the unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would not identify fell victim to the infection, which encrypted files that included documents, photographs and spreadsheets.

A ransom note left behind included an e-mail address, and the attacker using the address later demanded $200 for the digital keys to unlock the files.