Karen Ransomware

The Karen Ransomware is a threat that can devastate completely the computers it infects. Not only because it runs an encryption routine that locks the victim's files but because it seems like the threat is in its testing phase currently. This is supported by the delivered ransom note that lacks any meaningful details.

Affected users will be left with a joke message about the threat wanting to speak with their manager. The ransom note doesn't mention any way through which the victims can contact the hackers responsible for unleashing Karen ransomware. At the same time, even though the threat opens a website with a field for an ID to be entered, the note lacks such a string as well. In short, victims are left completely on their own when it comes to restoring the locked data.

The meaningless ransom note will be dropped on the infected systems as a text file named 'README.txt.' As for all of the files encrypted by the malware, they will be marked by having '.karen' appended to their names as a new extension.

The full text of the message shown by Karen ransomware is:

'Can I speak to your manager??
Tell him that Karen was here. Look at your damn mails!'