Exotic 3.0 Ransomware

Posted: November 7, 2016

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.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	5

First Seen:	November 7, 2016
Last Seen:	September 18, 2021
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Exotic 3.0 Ransomware is an updated version of the Exotic Squad Ransomware. Attacks by this threat still include attempts at holding your files hostage via non-consensual encryption, as well as different ways of loading messages asking for money for the safe return of that content. Anti-malware products proven competent at removing the original version of this threat should maintain effectiveness at deleting the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware and, potentially, preventing any damage to your hard drive's saved data.

When Paying will not Keep an Old Virus Away

Staying current against security protocols is just as important to threat authors as it is to their counterparts in the security industry to develop appropriate responses to the latest threats. As an extreme illustration, malware experts found an October-dated Trojan evolving into three derivatives before settling on the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware release. In total, this makes for at least four, minor variants of the same family of threats within a period of roughly one month.

The original version of this specimen, the Exotic Squad Ransomware, bases itself on Visual Basic and is notable for targeting program executables files especially, in addition to other types of content, including images or text documents. Like its predecessor, the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware uses encryption (estimated as an AES-128 algorithm) for blocking all of these files, potentially rendering a range of installed programs useless. Then, it loads an animated pop-up window.

The Exotic 3.0 Ransomware still identifies itself as the 'exotic virus' and uses techniques such as threatening to delete your files and tracking the victim's response time with a live timer. Previously, the threat actor, the self-titled 'EvilTwin,' used stock images of Hitler, and other, negative imagery for inducing panic-driven responses. Readers should keep in mind that the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware does not include real virus-based capabilities and can't insert its code into other files, although it may use a misrepresentative name so that it resembles a Windows component (in previous incidents, 'svchost.exe').

Staying Current Against the Newest Version of Digital Greed

Content most at risk against the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware includes files stored in the Windows user profile directories. Verifying encrypted data should be no harder than searching for the '.exotic' extension string, which the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware continues adding to the names of any encoded files. With the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware and its ancestors being new threats without known relationships to past families of threats, the security sector has yet to provide free decryption solutions for repairing the damage its attacks cause.

Old versions of this threat were not yet verifiable as being public releases against live targets, but the presence of the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware seems indicative of a new stage in its campaign. Backing data up to an external drive or server is the most direct way of guaranteeing that you can recover encoded information without risking paying the Trojan's ransom demands, while standard anti-malware protection remains still viable for deleting the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware.

The Exotic 3.0 Ransomware is, by no means, an unusual Trojan, but being rare or strange isn't necessary for threatening software. Even Trojans like the Exotic 3.0 Ransomware, sticking to tried-and-true attack strategies, are possible sources of computer damage that are easier to prevent than undo.

Exotic 3.0 Ransomware

Threat Metric

When Paying will not Keep an Old Virus Away

Staying Current Against the Newest Version of Digital Greed

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