Encryption Virus Protection

One of the things I mentioned in my previous post was a reference to an "encryption" virus. Since it came up, let's discuss what these types of virus's are and ways in which you can protect yourself from these potentially devastating virus's.

Encryption Virus Example

An encryption type virus is a nasty piece of work. When this type of virus attacks, it takes just about any and every file on you computer and runs an encryption routine on it. If you attempt to open the file, you'll only see gibberish. Similar to this:  "2#2%99)mbtu$728" etc. You'll get a pop up notice indicating that you've been infected and if you want access to your files, you'll have to pay a ransom. (example screenshot shown below).


When these types of infections first appeared they were somewhat easily fixed for those of us knowledgeable enough about the operating systems inner workings. On Windows 7 and above there is a feature known as "Shadow Copy". Once you disabled the actual file causing the encryption, you needed only to run the Shadow Copy restore utility to revert the file back to the previous version.

But alas, the nefarious people creating these things aren't long before they create a new, advanced version. Shortly after they realized there was a workaround, they updated the infection to first disable Shadow copy services on the system before it started to encrypt the files. Once they did that, you were "screwed", you now only had three options to choose from; 

1. Recover your files from a recent backup
2. Pay the ransom and hopefully get the de-encyption key
3. Move forward and accept that are your files are gone.

For a business, this last option is not acceptable. So hopefully they had a backup system in place to recover the files!

So, how do you protect your self from these encryption infections? Is there anything else I can do besides having a backup system in place. The answer to that is YES, just please understand; these infections are dynamic, meaning the designers are constantly changing them. What can protect you today may not be able to protect you tomorrow. Take as many reasonable approaches you can.

I'll be discussing backup methods and tools in a future post.

There is currently one tool that I'm aware of to help protect you from these encryption type infections (more are being developed I'm sure). Below is a link and a description provided by the publisher. Currently this tool is free. Take advantage of it!

Happy Computing!

Download Link for CryptoMonitor here)  There is a Free version and a paid Pro version. Please read about the differences and decide accordingly.

CryptoMonitor - Stop all known crypto-ransomware before it encrypts your data!

CryptoMonitor is a new Anti-Ransomware solution that was developed to protect your computer or server against the wave of encrypting Ransomware that has been in the wild the last few years. These infections, like CryptoWall, CryptoLocker, CTB Locker, CryptorBit, KeyHolder, TELSA, Operation Global, TorrentLocker, CryptoDefense, ZeroLocker (And Many Many More.), will use numerous exploits or other methods to get onto the victims machine and once launched encrypts/locks all personal files. When completed the Ransomware will then hold true to its name, and demand a ransom in order to get your files back, or forever face life without them.

All too often victims do not have backups of their files, cannot or will not pay the criminals, or their Anti-Virus software simply wasn't enough to prevent these attacks. With all of this in mind, CryptoMonitor was created to prevent your data being encrypted even when the ransomware bypasses your installed anti-virus solution.

CryptoMonitor does not rely on definitions to protect you from encrypting ransomware, but instead relies on behavioral detection that allows it to detect encrypting ransomware before it has a chance to encrypt your data. With this type of approach, even brand new crypto-ransomware infections will be stopped in their tracks without you having to worry about updates to the software. In fact, 90% of the time CryptoMonitor will lay in your system tray silently protecting you until the day you need it, and if that day comes your data will be safe.

Disclaimer: Any software you install due to a recommendation of our is your own responsibility. Please take all cautionary steps when installing software, even when it's recommended by the best of us! We can not be held responsible for any damages.