A new type of malware resorts to crippling a computer if it is detected during security checks, a particularly catastrophic blow to its victims. The malware, nicknamed Rombertik, is designed to intercept any plain text entered into a browser window. It is being spread through spam and phishing messages.

Rombertik goes through several checks once it is up and running on a Windows computer to see if it has been detected. That behavior is not unusual for some types of malware, but Rombertik is unique in that it actively attempts to destroy the computer if it detects certain attributes associated with malware analysis.