If the infection gets to this stage then things have gotten very serious and at this point many companies have been known to simply pay the ransom to regain access to their files and data. A screenshot of this screen is attached below: Once the infection of the computer or network has been completed Cryptolocker will display a screen that informs the user that all their files have been encrypted and that they will have to pay a ransom by a certain deadline in order to have access restored to their files. Once the files have been encrypted by the virus it will not be possible to open the files without the encryption password and without using specialist software. This makes the data inaccessible (usually by making the data unable to be opened, for example) and the viruses will generally target files that are most likely to be important, such as Excel files, Word documents, JPEG images (most likely all personal photographs), PDFs, Zip files, etc … Well, ransomware viruses do a very simple thing and they do it well – they encrypt data. The rapid spread of this type of virus is due to a number of simple, but key, factors that include the ability to trick users with legitimate seeming emails (containing the virus attached under the guise of an invoice or other document) and the difficulty of locating the virus in time due to the actions taken by the virus itself and the continued appearance of newer variants of the same type of virus.īut what exactly does ransomware, like Cryptolocker, do? And why have these types of virus been defined as devastating for the security and retention of business and home user data? One of the biggest IT Security challenges to and risks for companies in recent years has been the proliferation of the Ransomware viruses, the most infamous of which are well known by the names Cryptolocker, Cryptowall, CTB-Locker, TeslaCrypt, Wannacry, and there are many more too.

Crypto locker ransomware