New Brute-Force Decryption Method Defeats File-Destructing 'Helpme@freespeechmail.org Ransomware'

While 2015 marks the year for an onslaught of encryption-type ransomware threats, such threats continue to evolve and utilize different techniques to foil computer users so they may pay up ridiculous fees. As a flip in the script of ransomware and its aggressiveness, end-users have cracked a recent ransomware threat and can decrypt previously encoded files.

On a front that ransomware is now meeting its match, users can now use brute-force methods to make their way through the encryption processes and free their encrypted files. The particular ransomware threat that this is happening to is called the helpme@freespeechmail.org Ransomware.

The 'helpme@freespeechmail.org' naming part of the threat comes from its notification message that is displayed on infected computers claiming that computer users can obtain a decoder and the original key by emailing the helpme@freespeechmail.org address. Nothing is new about the way helpme@freespeechmail.org ransomware offers its reprieve from file encryption other than it makes its contact details well-known in bold letters.

Computer users who follow the helpme@freespeechmail.org ransomware threat message's instructions may end up in a negotiation battle where they still will be required to pay a hefty fee to get a decoder key to restoring their encrypted files. However, users on the Sensors Tech Forum have discovered an alternative to paying the ransom and utilizing the RakhniDecryptor tool by Kaspersky to decrypt their files. Such a method has been left primarily up to large security companies and their largely-distributed antimalware products, until now.

Use of the RakhniDecyptor tool goes through a process to brute-force through the ransomware's file encryption mechanism. The downfall with use of the decryption tool is that it is known to take hours to remedy the issue and finally decrypt encrypted files on your computer no matter how powerful of a system you have. To add insult to injury, there are cases where the decryption tool has taken days to complete, which goes to show how potent and destructive encryption-type ransomware threats like helpme@freespeechmail.org Ransomware can be.

While the RakhniDecyptor tool provides another method to remedying the destruction caused by a new ransomware threat, it doesn't beat the process of removing the threat to begin with or taking proactive actions to prevent infection. In our analysis of ransomware threats and countless reports on removing modern-day ransomware from a PC, we have taken notice of a large percentage of computer users taking the necessary steps to prevent infection from ransomware. We have found that doing such is the best approach to ransomware as many cases end up requiring victimized computer users to restore their entire system from a backup or reinstall their complete operating system onto a wiped-out system.

As Ransomware continues to evolve, sometimes it is refreshing to find alternative methods to combat the issues that come with aggressive encryption-type ransomware threats. Hopefully, with the creation of RakhniDecryptor we will see similar applications and remedies come out of the woodwork to help defeat new ransomware threats.