Home Malware Programs Ransomware '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware

'.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware

Posted: December 19, 2016

The '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware is a Trojan that locks your files by encrypting them and adding a new extension to their filenames. The '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware's threat actors recommend contacting them through various methods for help, most likely for demanding ransom payments, although this data recovery method always has a built-in degree of risk. Solution malware experts can recommend as both safer and cheaper than the above include keeping complete backups and using anti-malware programs for removing the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware.

How One File Locks Your Other Ones Up

Con artists are continuing to find the prospect of blocking the victims' digital possessions a lucrative means of extorting money from them, with new file-encrypting threats under production almost daily. While many of these Trojans base themselves on previously-examined code from families like Troldesh, others are individualized. For the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware, malware experts have yet to determine which is the case in this newly-identified campaign.

The '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware's payload includes three core aspects, much like a majority of other file-encoding Trojans. These phases consist of blocking your local content, tagging it and, then, creating a ransom transaction scenario, as follows:

  • The '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware uses an AES or Rijndael algorithm to encipher your local data. The most popular formats malware experts see with such attacks include documents, pictures, spreadsheets and databases. With these files encrypted, related programs are unable to open them.
  • The '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware helps its victims note which files it damages by giving them the '.aes256' extension. It may append the new extension after an existing one or overwrite the original extension.
  • After locking your data and giving you visual signals of such, the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware creates a Notepad message with detailed information on its encryption attack. The instructions recommend contacting any of several e-mail addresses or using the BitMsg P2P messaging application, to get in touch with the Trojan's admins.

The con artists, then, can demand money or other forms of compensation in exchange for decrypting the files and undoing the damage that their Trojan is responsible for causing.

Reasons for not Listening to a Con Artist's Recommendations

Although the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware doesn't include a time limit or other social engineering-based manipulations, partaking in its prospective ransom payments is no less risky than with any file-encrypting Trojan. Cybercrooks may receive their payments and do fail to give any assistance back, which they facilitate by a preference for cash transfer methods that the victim can't cancel (such as Bitcoin and Paysafecard). Unless third-party security researchers develop a decryption tool for the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware, the ideal data recovery strategy requires the presence of a preexisting backup.

The distribution channels of the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware's campaign still are the subject of investigation. In the recent past, malware experts see Trojans of the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware's classification installing themselves through e-mail attachments, fake updates, and direct attacks against Remote Desktop enabled systems. Always scan potentially hostile files before opening them to detect and delete the '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware before it begins scanning your files.

The '.aes256 File Extension' Ransomware is only a small piece of evidence of the largest trends in the threat industry to date, where threat actors shift from locking desktops to conducting attacks to cause possibly permanent data loss. Protecting your saved content accordingly through backups and strict security solutions is unlikely to stop being necessary for the new year.

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