CryptoLockerEU Ransomware

Posted: January 5, 2017

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	7,053
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	3,070

First Seen:	January 5, 2017
Last Seen:	October 16, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The CryptoLockerEU Ransomware is a Trojan unrelated to the original CryptoLocker, but capable of similar attacks involving blocking your files through an encryption process. Confirmed symptoms of an infection include ransom messages the Trojan generates as new text files, along with being unable to open the files that the Trojan locks with its enciphering routine. Your anti-malware products should be left active to monitor the infection vectors for this threat and delete the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware in a preventative fashion.

Extensions Additions Getting Right to the Point

One of the hallmark traits of file-encrypting threats that profit from blocking and ransoming files is their propensity for renaming files or inserting additional text into their names. This simple, aesthetic feature often helps solidify the 'brand' of the Trojan in question but also can deliver information to the victim, or play a part in the social engineering strategies at work. For the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware, malware experts witness an interesting, new evolution of this archetypal side feature.

In its other respects, the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware is a traditional threat using encryption to prevent you from accessing file formats, such as JPG, DOC or TXT. Although the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware asserts that its encryption method uses RSA-2048, malware analysts can't corroborate this claim, and, furthermore, stress that most Trojans provide false information about the strength of their enciphering algorithms. No matter whether the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware uses AES, Blowfish, or another method, the associated files are unreadable without being sent through a decryptor.

The files that the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware blocks are determinable by the extension it inserts after any preexisting ones, the '.send 0.3 BTC crypt' string. Whereas past threats might, at the most, add an e-mail contact address for a new extension, the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware is the only one of its kind, so far, to use the filename as a conveyance for its ransom demands. Accepting cash only via Bitcoin allows the threat actors to collect payments without needing to worry about cancellations if they don't provide a real decryption solution.

Keeping the EU Free of File-Locking Threats

Malware experts' analyses of the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware's components provide mixed messages of its intended geographical scope. While the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware's ransom message gives additional ransom-paying details in English, the filename attempts to use Russian (currently, a minor glitch causes the file to generate itself with a garbled name). While its branding is indicative of efforts at targeting the European Union, similar imitations of CryptoLocker are active elsewhere around the world.

The CryptoLockerEU Ransomware isn't an update of the original CryptoLocker but does harbor many of the same security issues in its payload. PC users can protect their data by saving backups in locations inaccessible to the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware's file scans, such as removable devices. Although a targeted hacking could install this threat, most file-encrypting Trojans spread through e-mail attachments that your anti-malware products should detect as being unsafe. However, removing the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware safely through standard anti-malware strategies doesn't reverse any encryption-based file damage.

As a brand-new threat for the new year, the CryptoLockerEU Ransomware offers a glimpse of malware authors' new plans: in many cases, the same as their old ones, but with extra emphasis on making it easy for a victim to see what's at stake and capitulate to unwarranted extortion.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

windowsdetector.com