Viruses

Gooolag is a ransomware infection that makes all stored data cut off from regular access to demand paying recovery ransom. It is more likely to see high-revenue companies infected with this ransomware version. Cybercriminals use the .crptd extension to each encrypted file. For instance, a data piece like 1.xls will change to 1.xls.crptd and reset its original icon. Following this stage of encryption, victims are met with decryption instructions presented inside of a text note called How To Restore Your Files.txt. The note unveils a world of agonizing information regarding the data. At first, cybercriminals state 600 Gigabytes of important data have been uploaded to anonymous servers. Then, victims are getting punched with some intimidation calls - DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks on entire domains and company contacts. To prevent it from happening and losing the whole data, victims are obliged to contact extortionists using e-mail communication (Gooolag46@protonmail.com or guandong@mailfence.com). Should developers suspect something related to police or cyber authorities, the recovery process will be affected.

Kikiriki is a ransomware infection that isolates access to data stored on a PC. All important files end up encrypted and altered by visual means. Kikiriki developers append the new .kikiriki extension along with the victim's ID. To illustrate, a file like 1.pdf is likely to change to 1.pdf.kikiriki.19A-052-6D8 and similarly. Soon after this, the virus creates a text file called !!! ALL YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED !!!.TXT. Ransomware developers state there is no other way to decrypt your data other than paying the ransom. The price for decryption is yet to be decided in further negotiations, however, victims are already informed it should be done in Bitcoin. To learn further payment instructions, victims are asked to contact extortionists via qTOX or Jabber platforms. It is also prompted to try free data decryption. Victims are free to send 2 blocked files of .jpg, .xls, .doc, or similar format except for databases (maximum 2MB in size). This should prove the decryption ability and elevate the trust of victims. Despite this, it is common to see many cybercriminals fool their victims even after receiving the ransom. Thus, paying the ransom is full of risks that should be considered by anyone infected with malware.

FluBot is a malicious infection classified as a banking trojan that happens to penetrate Android-based smartphones. A wide number of users made reports upon receiving suspicious messages with links to download pages. This is exactly how FluBot targets its victims. Extortionists send a number of similar SMS messages (in different languages) that contain links to download an ostensibly legitimate FedEx application. The fake delivery website shares an APK file used to install the FluBot virus. As soon as you launch the APK file, the installation wizard asks to grant many types of permissions like reading contacts, observing and sending SMS messages, pushing notifications, initiating phone calls, tracking location, and other suspicious permissions. Having such a big number of unreasonable permissions begs up a huge security question. By allowing all of the mentioned actions, your smartphone will be fully controlled by cybercriminals. This will, therefore, help them collect sensitive data entered during the usage. After accessing your smartphone, the virus also receives remote commands from servers to disable device protection and other features preventing third-party invasion. Note that FluBot may also generate fake windows that will require entering banking information (credit card number, CVC/CVC2 codes, etc.). Everything mentioned above proves that FluBot is a dangerous piece that has to be removed.

Being part of the ByteLocker family, JanusLocker is a ransomware infection that blocks access to files stored on a system. By doing so, developers blackmail victims into paying a so-called ransom in exchange for the data. Both payment and decryption instructions are located inside of a text note, which is created after all files end up encrypted. JanusLocker assigns the .HACKED extension to each file piece. For instance, 1.pdf or any other file attacked on your PC will change to 1.pdf.HACKED and become no longer accessible. It is written that all-important data has been encrypted using AES-256 algorithms. To erase the appended cipher, users are guided to pay for unique decryption software. The software price equals roughly 0.018 BTC, which is about 618 USD at the moment of writing this article. After users complete the money transfer through the attached crypto address, they should notify cyber criminals with their transaction ID using e-mail (TwoHearts911@protonmail.com). Soon afterward, users should get the promised decryption tools purchased from cybercriminals. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many ransomware developers fool their victims even after receiving the payment. This is why trusting JanusLocker by monetary means is quite a huge risk.

BiggyLocker is a ransomware-type virus that makes most files stored on a system totally inaccessible. This process is more known as data encryption. It involves strong AES and RSA algorithms meant to assign military-grade ciphers, which make self-decryption next to impossible. Alike other malware of this type, BiggyLocker assigns the .$big$ to each encrypted piece of data. For instance, a file like 1.pdf will be changed to 1.pdf.$big$ and reset its original icon. Then, as soon as this part of encryption is done, the virus moves on to creating a text note called read_me.txt. It is dropped on a desktop and contains ransom instructions. As developers claim, it is impossible to recover the blocked files without their help. To do this, victims are requested to pay for the social decryption software held by cybercriminals themselves. The price for such is 120$ to be transferred in Bitcoin. Once victims have paid the demanded ransom via the crypto address, they should therefore contact extortionists using their e-mail address (cyberlock06@protonmail.com). After this, victims should supposedly get the promised decryption tools to regain access to their data.

Haron is one of many ransomware infections that target encryption of personal data to demand paying the so-called ransom. Such malware makes sure most of the data stored on your device is locked out from regular access. Put differently, users affected by ransomware are no longer permitted to access the files. To learn if they have been encrypted, it is enough to look at their appearance. Haron adds the .chaddad extension to each of the files and forces the reset of icons as well. For example, a file named 1.pdf will be changed to 1.pdf.chaddad and drop its icon to blank. After this part of infection gets to a close, victims receive two notes (RESTORE_FILES_INFO.txt and RESTORE_FILES_INFO.hta) with decryption instructions. These instructions are meant to inform users about encryption. In addition to that, they claim cybercriminals to be the only figures able to recover your data. For this, users are asked to purchase unique decryption software held by extortionists themselves. Victims have to access a link via the Tor browser to complete the required payment. Sometimes frauds forget to put the contact or payment links, which makes recovery via cybercriminals automatically impossible.

Pay Us Ransomware seems to be a by-product of Vn_os Ransomware, which we discussed on our blog already. It acts exactly the same way - running data encryption and pushing victims to pay a so-called ransom. The only difference stands for different names of extensions and notes. Pay Us appends the .pay us extension to each file encrypted. To illustrate, a file like 1.pdf will be changed to 1.pdf.pay us and reset its original icon after encryption. Then, once this process gets to a close, the virus springs into creating a text note (read_me.txt) that contains decryption instructions. As developers state, victims are having the only option to recover the data - that is to pay for decryption tools sold by the extortionists. The price for decryption is set at 1,500$ to be paid in BTC. The Bitcoin rate differs constantly, this is why the price tag can soar up any time in the future. It is quite uncertain how victims will be getting the promised tool after sending the money. There are no e-mail addresses attached for establishing contact with the fraudulent figures. Considering this, obtaining decryption instruments from cybercriminals is full of uncertainty. Therefore, we do not recommend you to do so as there is a risk to lose your money.

AvosLocker is one of the most recent ransomware infections that encrypt personal files using both AES-256 and RSA-2048 algorithms. Along with this, the virus adds new .avos extension to each file that got encrypted. To illustrate, a sample file like 1.pdf will change to 1.pdf.avos and reset its original icon at the end of encryption. After all files have been configured with the new extension, users will see a text note called GET_YOUR_FILES_BACK.txt explaining how to recover the data. To do this, victims are instructed to visit the onion link via Tor browser, enter their personal ID, and therefore get the price for decryption suite to return their data. For now, this looks to be the only option available to recover your data completely. There is no third-party tool that has been successfully tested in decrypting AvosLocker files. It is worth noting that paying the monetary ransom may bear the risk of losing your money as well. This is why the best-case scenario in this situation is using backup copies of data.