AVCrypt Ransomware

The AVCrypt Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that also targets and removes different brands of security software that might detect the AVCrypt Ransomware as being a threat. Besides disabling those programs, the AVCrypt Ransomware may use encryption to block different files, such as pictures, documents, and other media. Users should ignore any extortion attempts from this Trojan and have an undamaged anti-malware tool delete the AVCrypt Ransomware, preferably, before it begins attacking their computers.

A Second 'Anti' to Your AV Products

While users can do different things to protect themselves from the infection strategies in use by the cybercrooks, such as avoiding opening spam e-mail, cyber-security software, often, is the final line of defense. Keeping this fact in mind, many threat actors bundle different anti-security attacks into the payloads of their file-locking Trojans, like the still-developing the AVCrypt Ransomware. Although malware experts only are seeing incomplete versions without a working, file-locking payload, the finalized aspects of the Trojan provide reliable measures for removing security applications.

The AVCrypt Ransomware disables the Windows Defender and Malwarebytes-brand applications by removing their services from Windows. The AVCrypt Ransomware also includes an additional, WMIC-based check for whatever AV software the user registers via the Security Center and deletes it, as well. While malware experts are classifying the AVCrypt Ransomware as being a work-in-progress, and not a Trojan with a campaign already active in the wild, these features are fully functional.

The data-locking function is non-working, due to bugs, but samples are including sufficient code for demonstrating how the final release of the AVCrypt Ransomware will use it. The AVCrypt Ransomware downloads a custom key from a C&C server, along with some other credentials, and runs the previous, anti-security program attack before encrypting different files. The AVCrypt Ransomware also renames the filenames and generates a Notepad ransoming note for the unlocking key; however, the latter is a placeholder with no information, such as a Bitcoin price.

Staying Ahead of the Anti-Malware Arms Race

The 'half-baked' versions of the AVCrypt Ransomware may not lock your files, but they can damage the security of your PC by disabling programs without your knowledge directly, along with communicating with a remote threat actor, for users who don't maintain strict firewall rules. Most PC owners should consider backing up media to reduce the chances of the AVCrypt Ransomware causing any encryption damages or making the only copies of their data inaccessible. The decryption and, therefore, after-the-fact recovery of your files may not be possible necessarily.

Malware experts find rotating variants of file-locking threats just like the AVCrypt Ransomware coming through different routes, including:

• Corrupted websites may use exploit kits, or, HTML-based toolkits that search for security vulnerabilities on the Web surfer's PC, for loading drive-by-download attacks that might install this threat.
• Installers for the AVCrypt Ransomware may hide inside of e-mail attachments, often, ones using a custom-crafted text of interest to the recipient.
• The cybercrooks also compromise high-value targets by brute-forcing their way past passwords and login combinations with insufficient complexity.

Most anti-malware programs should identify this Trojan immediately and remove the AVCrypt Ransomware before it begins attacking, in return.

A Trojan that's half-made is more than half-threatening to anyone's computer. Sadly, the AVCrypt Ransomware also is a warning sign of con artists continuing to lock data in ways that may not always be something that cryptography experts can reverse.