Fantom Ransomware

The Fantom Ransomware is a file encrypting Trojan that disguises its attacks as updates to the Windows operating system. Alert PC users can identify discrepancies between the Fantom Ransomware's deception and real updates, and standard anti-malware protections can block the Fantom Ransomware's installation before it encrypts your data. If all security measures fail, malware experts suggest that you restore from a backup only after deleting the Fantom Ransomware with a good anti-malware program.

The Trojan that's Just a Phantom of Windows

Because most con artists create file encryption Trojans from kits provided by threat authors, significant changes in the features or appearances of these threats are a rarity. Occasionally, however, some Trojans shows ambitions in their code besides the bare minimum of launching attacks and communicating extortion threats. Fantom Ransomware uses an innovative way to hide its otherwise traditional payload.

Unlike many Trojans of the same general grouping, the Fantom Ransomware has no associated family, and a broad majority of current AV solutions fail at detecting it. Of the remainder, nine do identify the Fantom Ransomware as being a threat, with most detections categorizing it as a generic Trojan. After the victim installs it, the Fantom Ransomware's attacks conceal themselves behind a pop-up that imitates the format of the modern Windows update screen.

Although the Fantom Ransomware's pop-up formats itself without a border or other, telltale signs of being a browser window, keyboard shortcuts remain accessible. This oversight lets the victims cycle between Windows and identify the pop-up as a fake update. While the pop-up remains open, the Fantom Ransomware begins encrypting the PC's accessible, personal files with AES-128, followed by RSA to protect the resulting keys.

Once the operation finishes, the Trojan welcomes the PC's owner with a desktop image that displays the Fantom Ransomware's encryption warning and demands to bargain for decryption over one of two e-mail addresses. An additional pop-up message, using similar formatting to unrelated campaigns, provides more information about the attack (but exaggerates the strength of the encryption algorithm).

Banishing Phantoms Before Your Files Go with Them

Based on its extremely particular disguise, malware analysts estimate that the Fantom Ransomware most likely uses infection vectors associated with fake Windows patches, which you may find on corrupted websites or compromised advertisement networks. Both of these sources are blockable by appropriate anti-malware and browser security features. PC users without such protection will have to consider the risk of paying the Fantom Ransomware's ransom for no benefit potentially, or, ideally, use backup for avoiding the issue of decryption.

Being cautious about strange updates also offers victims a new means of responding to the Fantom Ransomware that may not apply to similar threats. Since the Fantom Ransomware uses fake pop-up graphics to hide its attacks, noting the activity and taking the right security steps can stop the Fantom Ransomware in the middle of its encryption operations and, potentially, save your data. However, malware researchers always find it best to keep anti-malware solutions that can block or remove the Fantom Ransomware, and Trojans like it, without relying on manual intervention.

As Windows evolves, threatening software like the Fantom Ransomware also will adjust their social engineering exploits, requiring daily vigilance from any PC owner.