Are we alone against ransomware? No more ransom - "TechnoTron"

Three key points: Precaution, prevention, and not to respond to extortion

Imagine back home, put the key in the lock and verify that you can't open the door. In it there hung a paper on which you are being asked an amount of money to change to provide the key that opens the new lock that someone has installed in the door of your house.

So does the ransomware, one of the dangers of digital that more grows and the more popularity you have among the friends of the alien. An example, the ransomware Cryptowall v3 has tried to infect more than 400,000 computers, only in its third version, with an approximate cost of 631 million dollars in damages.

Unlike a virus, trojan horse or adware, steal your data, slow down your computer-or what they directly, the ransomware has as purpose to keep the access to your files or to your computer. What the price to regain control? Pay a certain amount to the author of the software infectious.

Previously we have spoken of examples of ransomware such as CryptoLocker and the increasing attacks on individuals and companies with this kind of hacking tools.


RASOMWARE, VIRUS

Anyone can be a victim

The ransomware can affect individuals and large companies or groups. A recent analysis of McAfee identifies three major groups of victims of this kind of threats.

The most important, hospitals and government offices. The reason? In many cases with very little computer security and networks involve the infection of tens of computers, which affects important services and sensitive information. On the other hand, can disburse the payment that is required with more ease than a particular.

Another possible group of potential victims are the users of mobile phones, and is that it is increasingly common to have a mobile device instead of a computer.

Easy to create

Why ransomware is so popular? Mainly because anyone can develop it, send it to a mailing list, to infect more computers and to obtain an economic benefit with the minimum effort.

There are on the internet tools to build your own ransomware

As with viruses and trojans, there are on the internet tools to build your own ransomware, in some cases as easy to use as you follow a few instructions and mark the desired option.

But unlike the first, where the benefit is not at all clear (to steal data, maybe you can sell it or not), in the case of this type of malware, to get something to change is very simple, both as to infect the data of someone willing to pay to recover them.

On the other hand, create a false account to receive a payment through one of the many digital services or through the mail is easier than years ago. What is more, in many cases are asked directly for the payment by criptomonedas as Bitcoin or similar.

A difficult problem to fix

While a virus, a worm or any other malware it can detect and delete so that your computer back to its normal functioning, the nature of the ransomware makes it a little more difficult to overcome.

The ransomware is based on the encryption of files, so that without the key or the original software that encrypted your files, it is very difficult to decrypt them to come back to retrieve them again. Hence many victims to pay what is asked of them.

Without the key or the original software that encrypted your files, it is very difficult to decrypt them to come back to retrieve them

you must start by preventing it. Our computer will not get infected on her own, so we must riding with eye when you open an email unknown, you open a file from an anonymous source or clicking on a link that we do not know its origin.

On the one hand and caution on the other, prevention. Those who want to infect our computer or mobile device with ransomware want to hijack our data and files. What would be the solution? Keep them handy by using backups, on an external disk and/or in the cloud.

What if we are victims of the ransomware? First, do not indulge in extortion. As we saw in this article there are already solutions to many of the infections by ransomware today.

In addition, the security firms are beginning to take an interest in this problem and launched initiatives such as No more ransom.

The union makes the force

The project No more ransom was born before the need to offer solutions to victims of ransomware.

This portal is provided free of charge and without commitment with tools with which to decrypt files taken hostage by ransomwares as popular as Chimera, Wildfire or Teslacrypt. Behind are two great security as Kaspersky and Intel Security / McAfee, in addition to Europol and the cooperation of Amazon and Barracuda.

If you go to the tools section of decryption, you'll see that the list of ransomware that is currently available is extensive. Almost 40 families, at the time of writing this article, with its different variants.

Each tool is downloadable individually and has its own guide for using it properly. Taking a look you will see that have been created by security firms known as Kaspersky, Avast, or the Intel Security / McAfee.

In case you cannot find the right tool, you can facilitate the project No more ransom a sample of the ransomware which infected your computer.

From the section Crypto Sheriff you can upload a couple of files encrypted together with the link or email that you have sent the perpetrators of the ransomware. Responsible for No more ransom analyse the material in search of a solution and/or will the relevant authorities give the responsible.

As a sign of the importance of ransomware, a piece of information: the first day that No More ransom was online received over 2.6 million visits.

RASOMWARE, VIRUS