Security Awareness Training Blog

Ransomware Blog

Keeping you updated on the latest ransomware attack vectors, strains, decryptors, families and trends to help you avoid becoming infected.

Want Your Ransomed Files Back? Just Infect Someone Else!

Larry Abrams just reported: "Yesterday a new in-development ransomware was discovered by MalwareHunterTeam called Popcorn Time that intends to give victim's a very unusual, and criminal, ...
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Locky Ransomware Campaign Using Osiris Extension from Egyptian Mythology

The threat actors behind Locky ransomware have moved on from Norse gods such as Zepto, Odin and Thor and into Egyptian mythology with a new campaign that uses the extension .osiris when ...
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Why Advanced Ransomware Is Cybercrime's Most Profitable Business Model

RSA did a revealing ransomware risk-reward analysis. See that $6 million number over to the right? Why does cybercrime like ransomware so much? Low Risk, High Payoff From the bad guy's ...
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Yes, that message is really from Facebook. And, yes, it's really malicious.

By Eric Howes, KnowBe4 Principal Lab Researcher Just two weeks after we reported that the bad guys had effectively converted LinkedIin into a phishing platform, Facebook once again found ...
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Ransomware Roundup November 2016

Crysis decryption keys posted The decryption keys of the Crysis ransomware were posted on Pastebin, which allows victims to decrypt their hijacked files without paying. Crysis was ...
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Healthcare Sees 20 Data Loss Incidents PER DAY Due To Ransomware

In late October, three of the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) hospitals’ computer systems were attacked by malware that forced the hospital to cancel scheduled surgeries and divert ...
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My Antivirus Failed The RanSim Test. How Do I Fix This?

So, you downloaded KnowBe4's Ransomware Simulator test and your antivirus security software failed one or more of the ransomware scenarios. When this happens we almost always get asked: ...
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New Locky Ransomware Phishing Attack: Credit Card Suspended And Suspicious Money Movements

Graham Cluley was the first to report on a new Locky ransomware phishing attack where the emails claim to be "credit card suspended" and "suspicious money movement" warnings. He said: "In ...
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New Version Of Nymaim Malware Targets High-Level Managers

A new version of the Nymaim malware family targets high-level managers with attached malicious Word documents and drops ransomware and banking trojans. The cyber research team at Verint ...
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Insurance underwriter Beazley: "Ransomware attacks will be four times higher in 2016"

The Wall Street Journal is getting the message. They said : "For companies concerned about the soaring number of ransomware attacks–in which hackers take control of data or systems and ...
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Ransomware Strain Count Surpasses 200

Michael Gillespie tweeted: "Whew! ID #Ransomware can now identify 200 ransomware families. :) Sad such a milestone was hit so quickly..." He added a list from the malwarehunterteam site, ...
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"My AV blocked RanSim.exe So I'm Safe" No You Are Not

I'm noticing a lot of people saying the ransim.exe file is getting blocked by your AV. You have to actually allow the initial processes to run to do the simulation. It is the five test ...
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Python Ransomware Uses A Unique Key For Each File That Is Encrypted

A new ransomware strain written in Python called CryPy was disclosed by Avast malware analyst Jakub Kroustek. It seems that Pyton is getting more popular as a ransomware development ...
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More than 60% of US office workers are unaware of the ransomware threat

Nearly half of ransomware attacks are aimed at office workers, but almost two-thirds of those polled are unaware of the threat More than 60% of US office workers are unaware of ransomware ...
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AI-powered ransomware is coming, and it's going to be terrifying

Business Insider started an article with the following: "Imagine you've got a meeting with a client, and shortly before you leave, they send you over a confirmation and a map with ...
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Did You Know That Ransomware Can Stop SQL So It Can Encrypt The Database?

I have been knee deep into Ransomware since September 2013 when the granddaddy of modern ransomware CryptoLocker made well over 20 million bucks in a few months. But sometimes I learn ...
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Massive Cerber Ransomware Campaign Flooding Your Employees' Inboxes

By Eric Howes, KnowBe4 Principal Lab Researcher. This Monday morning many of our customers came in to work to find a rather rude surprise lurking in their inboxes: a massive Cerber ...
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This weird ransomware strain spreads like a virus in the cloud

Here is a ransomware horror story for you... An obscure 2-year old ransomware strain called Virlock has a nasty feature: it is capable of stealthily spreading itself via cloud storage and ...
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Ransomware Is Now Officially Extortion Under California Law

Of course everyone knows that hacking into a computer is a federal crime, and infecting a system with ransomware already falls into that bucket. However, California’s SB-1137, signed into ...
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What is the Necurs Botnet And How Does It Spread Locky Ransomware?

In Short: The Necurs botnet is one of the world's largest botnets with more than 6 million zombie machines tied into it. It's run by Russian organized cybercrime and responsible for ...
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