Cerber 6 Ransomware

The Cerber family of ransomware is known for its sophistication and its development of cutting- edge threats technology. PC security researchers have noticed a new variant in this family, the Cerber 6 Ransomware, which first appeared in April 2017. The Cerber 6 Ransomware is being delivered in a wide variety of ways and seems to include new encryption methods and attack strategies.

The Threat Presented by a Cerber 6 Ransomware Attack

The members of the Cerber family have been near the top of the charts of most widely disseminated ransomware threats. In fact, threats in this family accounted for more than 85% of ransomware infections in the first quarter of 2017. The Cerber 6 Ransomware and its previous variants have been responsible for generating millions of dollars for its creators around the world. One of the reasons why the Cerber 6 Ransomware has been especially effective in generating revenue is that it is being distributed as a RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) currently, where con artists pay for the rights to distribute the Cerber 6 Ransomware, sharing the profits with the Cerber Ransomware's creators.

The New Features in the Cerber 6 Ransomware

The Cerber 6 Ransomware features new delivery methods and a newly updated encryption method. The Cerber 6 Ransomware also includes new defense mechanisms and obfuscation, which include techniques that allow the Cerber 6 Ransomware to bypass many security programs or to detect when it is running in a sandbox environment or virtual system (both of which may be used by PC security researchers to study these threats.) It is clear that threats in the Cerber family are being updated constantly and, since its appearance in 2016, with new versions in this family adding new features, staying ahead of malware researchers and security software.

The Cerber 6 Ransomware is being delivered to victims using spam email messages currently. The Cerber 6 Ransomware is being delivered in emails that use social engineering to trick computer users into opening a ZIP file attachment, which itself contains a JS, or JavaScript file. This corrupted JavaScript file downloads and installs the Cerber 6 Ransomware on the victim's computer. The Cerber 6 Ransomware uses a time delay that allows it to avoid certain sandbox environments. There are several features in the Cerber 6 Ransomware that have caught the attention of malware researchers. The Cerber 6 Ransomware will terminate file processes that could interfere with its encryption routine. The Cerber 6 Ransomware will use file extensions to avoid certain files during encryption. The Cerber 6 Ransomware can interfere with the Windows Firewall, blocking certain firewalls and interfering with security software and restrictions. The detection and removal of a Cerber 6 Ransomware infection will be more difficult due to this interference. The Cerber 6 Ransomware also can self-destruct if the computer has characteristics of a virtualized environment.

One aspect of the Cerber 6 Ransomware that makes it different from various other ransomware Trojans is that it has avoided the use of the RSA and RC4 encryption algorithms in its attacks, which are the most commonly used in these attacks. The Cerber 6 Ransomware attack favors the Cryptographic Application Programming Interface to carry out its encryption attack.

Protecting Your Computer from the Cerber 6 Ransomware and Similar Trojans

Despite that the Cerber 6 Ransomware includes advanced new features, the way to protect your computer from the Cerber 6 Ransomware remains the same as with the countless other ransomware variants that have preceded it. Having backup copies of your files on an external memory device remains (and will remain) the best protection against ransomware like the Cerber 6 Ransomware. This is because having the ability to restore the affected files from a backup copy undoes the Cerber 6 Ransomware attack completely since the con artists lose any power they have over the victim.

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