Lockedv1 Ransomware
The Lockedv1 Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan without a known family. The Lockedv1 Ransomware encrypts files so that users can't open them, replaces their names with its extension and random characters and demands ransoms through a TOR website. Effective anti-malware products should remove the Lockedv1 Ransomware immediately, but users depend on safe backups for restoring their files without a ransom.
Ransoming Files – But Leaving which Ones Up to Guesswork
The use of extensions for flagging data as a hostage to criminal software is a long-standard feature of file-locker Trojans, including ones like the Dharma Ransomware, Hidden Tear, or the Lockedv1 Ransomware, which target Windows users preferentially. Somewhat scarcer is the new the Lockedv1 Ransomware's use of additional, name-obscuring features. While a victim might consider counting the costs of losing their files from an infection, the Lockedv1 Ransomware's campaign makes it difficult strikingly.
The Lockedv1 Ransomware uses a currently-questionable encryption algorithm of indeterminate security as its means of locking files so that they can't open. Unlike most file-locking Trojan families, except the Scarab Ransomware one, the Lockedv1 Ransomware also wipes the entire name and replaces it with semi-random characters. Since this includes the original extension, there are significant difficulties in identifying the encrypted content post-attack.
The Lockedv1 Ransomware also generates a text message for any victims, which provides a standard set of directions for recovering files by paying a ransom through an anonymous TOR website. The Lockedv1 Ransomware asks for three hundred USD in Bitcoins roughly, suggesting that it doesn't anticipate compromising corporate entities. However, non-consensual data encryption is just as potent against home users and smaller businesses.
Solving Data-Locking Guessing Games
As 'version one' of its software, the Lockedv1 Ransomware may represent the first of an iteration of its code. The future builds improving its obfuscation, encryption security, or other features malware researchers encourage the use of backups on different devices for protection. Although the Lockedv1 Ransomware may not erase the Restore Points, its payload has a high chance of impacting locally-saved data and even network-accessible content like NAS.
Windows users should stay attentive to possible infection routes from its campaign. Administrators maintaining strong passwords, limiting RDP access, and installing software updates regularly guarantee that their charges aren't likely to fall prey to any attacks. All users also should keep in mind the abusable nature of e-mail attachments and in-browser features like JavaScript.
Detection rates for most of this class's threats tend to be high, as malware analysts confirm for current releases of this Trojan. Under the protection of most AV vendors or equivalent security software, users can remove the Lockedv1 Ransomware on sight easily before the file-locking routine begins.
The Lockedv1 Ransomware is setting its sights relatively low for its payday, but not low enough that it can't sabotage all the files on someone's PC. While backup solutions can be expensive, they never are as bad as paying a ransom for a recovery service that might never appear.
