The website of a toy company has been spreading malware that holds files to ransom

The website of Japanese toy-maker Maisto has been found to be spreading malicious software that encrypts a user's files and holds them to ransom, Ars Technica reports.

Maisto is the manufacturer of model vehicles which are sold around the world. But researchers from security company Malwarebytes found that its website was infected with ransomware, a type of malicious software that is spread between computers, infects hard drives, and then forces people to pay to unlock their files.

Maisto's website is currently unavailable:

Ars Technica says that it looks like someone managed to get into Maisto's website using an outdated version of its content management system.

This isn't the first time that ransomware has been spread online. A Mac torrent client named Transmission was found to be spreading ransomware through its installer in March.