Mobef Ransomware

The Mobef Ransomware is a Trojan that uses multiple data encryption algorithms to encode your data, with the intent of selling a decryption service back to you. Although any encrypted files are effectively inaccessible, other workarounds are available that can render the concept of paying the Mobef Ransomware's ransom an obsolete and unnecessary practice. Malware researchers also continue recommending removing the Mobef Ransomware, and any associated threat, by approved methods before restoring any encrypted information to its original state.

A Trojan Selling You the Key to Your Personal Belongings

The Mobef Ransomware, or Ransom.the Mobef is a potential variant of the Yakes Ransomware and uses similar attacks and ransom messages in its campaign. Like any threatening file encryptor, the Mobef Ransomware scans for any files of potentially work-based content on your hard drives, such as Microsoft Office content, and encrypts a small portion of each file. The encryption algorithms (including AES, RSA, and, more uncommonly, DES), while not notably complex, guarantee that the affected data is illegible to any associated programs, placing your content in a state of lockdown.

Additional files included in the Mobef Ransomware's payload, including various TXT documents, deliver ransom messages for selling its victims a reverse process in the form of a decryptor service. Like the Yakes Ransomware, the Mobef Ransomware asks for further communications to use the BitMessage app or e-mail, with the estimated payments taking place through the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Unusually, malware experts found two, separate extension names associated with any data encrypted by this threat: 'keyh0les' (which it shares with the Yakes Ransomware) and 'keyx.'

Any PC owners restoring data affected by the Mobef Ransomware should take note that the appended extensions serve as identifier flags and that removing them has no impact on the encryption routine, which affects the underlying data structure of each file.

Excising the Ransom from a Ransom-Based Malware Campaign

The ransoms demanded by file encryption Trojans can range from a low end of several hundred dollars to over one thousand, and most con artists don't provide any form of a verifying 'handshake' process that would prevent them from taking the money without delivering any corresponding service. While the Mobef Ransomware's recent date of emergence means that no public decryptors are yet available for it, providing samples to appropriate PC security institutions upon request can accelerate the development process for such free solutions.

More importantly, keeping backups not stored locally (which would be subject to deletion) can give any victim of the Mobef Ransomware's attacks an inexpensive way of restoring the encrypted content without requiring the decryption key. For now, malware experts only see a very limited number of file encryption Trojans designed with the capacity for compromising cloud storage accounts and detached hard drives are, of course, always safe storage options.

Since this threat doesn't display visible program entries, files or memory processes, you should delete the Mobef Ransomware through using your favored anti-malware program to detect it automatically. However, since these threats typically use previously-established, preventable infection vectors, such as e-mail spam, paying attention to which files you interact with can provide an additional layer of safety beyond that afforded by your security software.

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