Displaying items by tag: Fabian Wosar

Another Windows ransomware group, BlackMatter, appears to have shut down operations, according to a message sent out by the people behind the group.

Security firm Emsisoft has lost the ability to produce keys that could decrypt files encrypted by the BlackMatter Windows ransomware gang, something it has been doing for a while.

Issues have been identified with a decryptor released by security firm Bitdefender for files encrypted by the REvil ransomware group before it temporarily disappeared on 13 July.

The chief technology officer of New Zealand-headquartered Emsisoft, a firm well known for its efforts in helping ransomware victims, has poked fun at the "new 'innovative' ways people will claim to be the next big fix for ransomware".

Incident response firm Coveware has deleted a small portion of an article it had posted online in 2019, after the actors behind the REvil ransomware group — also known as Sodinokibi — used it to promote the efficiency of their own decryptor over that of the one used by rival ransomware actor, Ryuk.

Polish video game developer CD Projekt, a company that is known for its game series The Witcher and the CyberPunk 2077 project, says it has suffered an attack from unspecified ransomware, but claims that users' personal data has not been affected.

A security firm that is deeply involved in the business of combating ransomware has called for a government ban on the payment of ransoms by companies that fall prey to this form of Windows malware, adding that there was no other practical solution to the problem.

The number of successful ransomware attacks on US public sector bodies fell during the period from January to April month-on-month even as the COVID-19 crisis intensified, but that trend now appears to be reversing, the New Zealand-headquartered security firm Emsisoft says.

The coronavirus pandemic and the sharp rise in people working from home appear to have resulted in a significant drop in Windows ransomware attacks on US government agencies, educational establishments and healthcare providers in the first three months of 2020.

A veritable tsunami of ransomware attacks hit Windows systems in the US public sector in 2019, with at least 948 government agencies, healthcare providers and educational establishments being affected at a cost estimated to be about US$7.5 billion, the security firm Emsisoft says in a report.

Australia data firm Fast Data Recovery reportedly offered to decrypt files that had been encrypted by the Dharma ransomware for a fee of $9650, a security professional claims.