Teamo Ransomware
The Teamo Ransomware is an encryption ransomware Trojan. The Teamo Ransomware is based on HiddenTear, an open source encryption ransomware Trojan released in August of 2015 that has been responsible for countless variants since its initial release. The Teamo Ransomware seems to have been created by Spanish speakers and targets computer users in Spanish speaking regions (although there is nothing to prevent computer users located outside these regions from becoming infected as well). Although it looks like that the Teamo Ransomware is the work of amateurs, the danger of HiddenTear is that it can be used to carry out highly effective encryption ransomware attacks, making a Teamo Ransomware infection nearly impossible to deal with for many computer users. Threats like the Teamo Ransomware, like other encryption ransomware Trojans, are designed to encrypt the victims' files using a strong encryption algorithm, then demanding the payment of a ransom in exchange for the decryption key. Threats like the Teamo Ransomware are designed to take the victims' files hostage and then demand a ransom payment.
The Teamo Ransomware Infection Process
The Teamo Ransomware is designed to encrypt the user-generated files, searching for files associated with commonly used software, as well as media files, configuration files, databases, and numerous other file types. Threats like the Teamo Ransomware avoid Windows system files since they require Windows to remain functional so that they can display a ransom note on the victim's PC. The Teamo Ransomware attack identifies the encrypted files with the file extension '.teamo,' which is added to the end of each affected file's name. The Teamo Ransomware uses the AES encryption to make the victim's files inaccessible. This is a strong encryption method, which makes it nearly impossible to restore the files that were encrypted. The Teamo Ransomware and other HiddenTear variants will search for numerous file types on the victim's computer, including the following:
.3dm, .3g2, .3gp, .7zip, .aaf, .accdb, .aep, .aepx, .aet, .ai, .aif, .as, .as3, .asf, .asp, .asx, .avi, .bmp, .c, .class, .cpp, .cs, .csv, .dat, .db, .dbf, .doc, .docb, .docm, .docx, .dot, .dotm, .dotx, .dwg, .dxf, .efx, .eps, .fla, .flv, .gif, .h, .idml, .iff, .indb, .indd, .indl, .indt, .inx, .jar, .java, .jpeg, .jpg, .js, .m3u, .m3u8, .m4u, .max, .mdb, .mid, .mkv, .mov, .mp3, .mp4, .mpa, .mpeg, .mpg, .msg, .pdb, .pdf, .php, .plb, .pmd, .png, .pot, .potm, .potx, .ppam, .ppj, .pps, .ppsm, .ppsx, .ppt, .pptm, .pptx, .prel, .prproj, .ps, .psd, .py, .ra, .rar, .raw, .rb, .rtf, .sdf, .sdf, .ses, .sldm, .sldx, .sql, .svg, .swf, .tif, .txt, .vcf, .vob, .wav, .wma, .wmv, .wpd, .wps, .xla, .xlam, .xll, .xlm, .xls, .xlsb, .xlsm, .xlsx, .xlt, .xltm, .xltx, .xlw, .xml, .xqx, .xqx, .zip.
The Teamo Ransomware's Ransom Demands
The Teamo Ransomware drops a text file named 'Hello Hi Hola como sea jaja.txt' (translated into English as 'Hello Hi Hola whatever haha.txt') on the victim's computer. The file contains the Teamo Ransomware's ransom note, written both in Spanish and English. Below is the full text of the Teamo Ransomware ransom note:
'Tus Archivos Han Sido Encryptados
(Your Files Have Been Encrypted)
Tus archivos han sido encryptados, lo que significa que ya no puedes abrirlos. Debo decir que no existe manera que los podamos recoperar ? … Mentira, contactame. Zika
Your files have been encrypted, which means you can not open them any more. I must say there is no way that the recipes ? …
Lie, contact me. Zika
Atte. Your Friend Zika.'
One curious thing about the Teamo Ransomware's ransom note is that it does not mention a payment method, contact email, or any other practical way for the victim pay the ransom or contact the cybercrooks. This makes it apparent that the people responsible for the Teamo Ransomware have no intention of gathering ransom payments or allowing victims to restore their files after an attack. Unfortunately, file backups are the only way that the encrypted files can be restored currently.
