Afrodita Ransomware

The Afrodita Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan whose campaign is targeting Croatian businesses through fake invoice spreadsheets. Besides remaining cautious about interactions with e-mail files, users should protect their media through standard backup practices. Anti-malware utilities should delete the Afrodita Ransomware or its Trojan downloader as appropriate.

When Divine Love Means Extortion

The exploitation of e-mail is one of the most favored platforms for staging attacks against businesses around the world, and a new breed of file-locking Trojan encapsulates the techniques at play. As usual, the victim shares some responsibility for infections, which progress into blocking digital media and leaving behind demands for money. Although the Afrodita Ransomware isn't an affiliate of a Ransomware-as-a-Service or free projects like Hidden Tear, its means of turning a profit are very much in tune with those of past threats.

Thus far, the Afrodita Ransomware campaign is limiting attacks to Croatia-based business entities in indeterminate industries. The means is through e-mail phishing lures that convey Excel spreadsheets mimicking invoices, with appropriate linguistics and formatting for the targets. Although the recipient has to activate the additional, macro-based content inside the file, once they do so, the Afrodita Ransomware gets its installation.

For the Afrodita Ransomware, while malware researchers find few oddities in it, the Trojan conveys attacks that aren't too different from those of a Scarab Ransomware or STOP Ransomware variant. It encrypts media such as images and documents, changes their extension into references of its name (a Spanish version of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite) and leaves both graphical and textual ransom notes. It also adheres to the popular means of organizing ransoms this year: using a TOR website for anonymity and organization, even going so far as to call its service a user-friendly 'chat room.'

Teaching the Afrodita Ransomware All About Tough Love

The Afrodita Ransomware's tactic depends on its guile in fooling workers into enabling content that should be readily-discernible as unsafe. Only outdated versions of Microsoft Office software will load macros without requiring an additional prompt. Even users who aren't aware of the dangers of macro-based content can protect themselves by scanning the download with an appropriate security product before opening it.

Because the Afrodita Ransomware isn't an apparent relative of any known, file-locker Trojan, malware researchers can't confirm whether it could be decryptable for free. However, most Trojans of this classification avoid non-secure locking routines. Thus, emphasize is always on the possession and appropriate protection of a backup that can keep your media safe from being encrypted or erased. In rare cases, using advanced recovery software also can be of use.

At a bare minimum, reputable Windows anti-malware solutions should catch and remove the Afrodita Ransomware, as well as the embedded Trojan that's serving as its loader.

With Greek mythology, a Spanish name, and Croatian victims, the Afrodita Ransomware is a Trojan of complex cultural influences. Encryption and extortion are, unfortunately, concepts that travel from nation to nation as quickly and efficiently as any e-mail.