TurkStatik Ransomware

A new ransomware threat appeared in the wild recently. Its name is TurkStatik Ransomware. This threat does not appear to belong to any of the popular ransomware families whose new copies we see all the time. What is different about this ransomware threat is that it appears to target Turkish users mainly. Malware researchers reached this conclusion after studying this threat and noticing that the ransom message is written in fluent Turkish without any grammatical or spelling mistakes. This led them to believe that the TurkStatik Ransomware is not only tailored to target Turkish citizens, but it seems like it was built by Turkish natives too.

Propagation and Encryption

The TurkStatik Ransomware is likely being propagated via phishing emails that try to trick the user into opening the corrupted attached file that contains the TurkStatik Ransomware’s code. When the TurkStatik Ransomware compromises a system, it will look for all popular file types and apply its encryption algorithm to lock them. This ransomware threat will seek out images, audio files, videos, spreadsheets, archives, databases, presentations, documents, etc. This guarantees that the TurkStatik Ransomware will cause as much damage to the host as possible. When the encryption process is finished, the user will notice that the file names of the locked files have been altered. The TurkStatik Ransomware applies a ‘.ciphered’ extension at the end of the names of the affected files. For example, a file that was named ‘rose-ash.jpeg’ prior to the attack will be renamed ‘rose-ash.jpeg.ciphered’ after the operation has been completed.

The Ransom Note

The ransom message of the TurkStatik Ransomware is stored in a file called ‘README_DONT_DELETE.txt’ that will be dropped on the user’s desktop. The authors of the TurkStatik Ransomware make it clear that the ransom fee will be demanded in the shape of Bitcoin but fail to mention the specific sum. It is likely that they will reveal the ransom fee as soon as the victim contacts them. The attackers give out two email addresses where the victim can get in touch with them and receive further instructions – ‘decservice@mail.ru’ and ‘recoverydbservice@protonmail.com.’

However, the good news for the users who have fallen victim to this nasty threat is that cybersecurity experts have cracked this ransomware threat and released a publicly available decryption key that can be reached with a simple Google search. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the TurkStatik Ransomware has been neutered completely. The authors of this file-locking Trojan may update the threat and change its encryption routine. For now, the users who get infected with the TurkStatik Ransomware have a get out of jail free card and will not have to cooperate with the cyber crooks. However, even if there were no free decryption tools available, we would recommend you against ever contacting cybercriminals like the ones behind the TurkStatik Ransomware as nothing good can come out of it.