Genocheats Ransomware

Posted: January 9, 2018

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:	2/10
Infected PCs:	82

First Seen:	May 8, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Genocheats Ransomware is a variant of Hidden Tear, a Trojan that uses AES-based encryption for locking the media of the PC. Threat actors subvert the original purpose of this project by placing your data in a hostage situation, allowing them to demand ransoms for unlocking the files. Always keep backups both updated and secure, and eliminate the Genocheats Ransomware safely with a suitable anti-malware program.

Cheaters Never Prosper

The Hidden Tear family is in exploitation again, this time, by cybercrooks with an entertainment-themed tactic for distributing their Trojan to victims at random. Rather than having its installation routines associated with e-mail-based infection vectors, this HT release, the Genocheats Ransomware, is installing itself as a fake crack for premium software, including Adobe's Photoshop and Mojang's Minecraft. Its payload also is showing evidence of individual variations for different countries, although some versions that malware experts analyze are notable for being incomplete or buggy.

Whether the Genocheats Ransomware is on offer as a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) product or not has yet to be verifiable directly. One version's payload uses Italian language ransom messages, while the second uses English. Both types of the Genocheats Ransomware hijack the Windows desktop with a separate image containing a general encryption warning and some of their ransoming demands. However, even though the Genocheats Ransomware drops a text message, as well, this second file omits the essential payment information.

What the Genocheats Ransomware does include, in its fully-functional entirety, is the original cryptography attack routine of Utku Sen's Hidden Tear. This AES encryption feature can encipher and block media like Word documents, JPG images and content of a similar nature. Malware experts found only one, other symptom related to this attack: the appending of the '.encrypted' extension, which different file-locker Trojans of various families also employ.

The Quick-Fix Hack for Trojan Problems

Both types of the Genocheats Ransomware programs are limiting their attacks to the user's profile data folder, and only have compatibility with Windows PCs. Hidden Tear variants like the Genocheats Ransomware, the RansomMine Ransomware, the Viro Ransomware, the Facebook Ransomware, the MemeLocker Ransomware or the SkyLocker Ransomware all have chances of being compatible with free decryption software. Since victims always should avoid paying a con artist to unlock their media, testing all free solutions before any other actions is a general guideline that malware experts encourage, especially, for Hidden Tear.

Because the Genocheats Ransomware uses a location-restricted encryption feature, backups also can give any user a simple way of restoring what's theirs without having to decode anything, which isn't always practical. Hidden Tear also is a proof-of-concept program, and lacks any significant obfuscation to hide its identity, by default. Most anti-malware software can identify members of this family without any difficulty and should remove the Genocheats Ransomware to save your files automatically.

The Genocheats Ransomware owes its name to a real group of software 'hackers' who provide gaming cheats and similar, black hat solutions to DRM. Anyone who wants to use a product without paying for it should recall that not every price is an upfront one, and any illicit download can contain a threat like the the Genocheats Ransomware.

Genocheats Ransomware

Threat Metric

Cheaters Never Prosper

The Quick-Fix Hack for Trojan Problems

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