Bioawards Ransomware

The Bioawards Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan of the Scarab Ransomware family. Although its primary feature is blocking media files like documents, the Bioawards Ransomware also supports its attacks with ransom demands, changing to files' names, disabling various security features, and wiping backups. Windows users with anti-malware tools may identify and remove the Bioawards Ransomware with minimal delay, although victims impacted by its locking attack require secure backups for any file restoration.

Winning Awards in Unsafe Computer Interactions

While Scarab Ransomware's Trojan family gets most of its newsworthiness from targeting Russian speakers, the group also has room for more-traditional, English-based variants. Windows-based Trojans like the Bioawards Ransomware show that the Scarab Ransomware is more than capable of attacking users anywhere in the world, provided that they're using Windows. Victims of the Bioawards Ransomware's attacks find themselves facing two options: shrugging off the loss of their files or rewarding the criminal activity with a ransom.

The Bioawards Ransomware variant behaves not-too-differently from other versions of the Ransomware-as-a-Service as of 2020, like the FIXI Ransomware, the Scarry Ransomware, the Restoreserver Ransomware or the Recoverydatas Ransomware. It blocks most of the user's digital media files, such as documents or pictures, with an AES-256 and RSA-2048 encryption routine, secure against outside decryptors or unlocking solutions for years. Even more noticeably, the Bioawards Ransomware also 'scrambles' files' names with Base64, besides adding its name into them as extensions.

The Bioawards Ransomware's attacks are profit-motivated, as any victims might see through reading the text note that the Trojan creates. This message eschews the warning of deleting files on the attacker's server (an additional detail in the tactic, in some Scarab Ransomware variants) but persists in giving the reader a limited window for response before the file-unlocking key's destruction. Although there isn't any tangible payment information, the Trojan provides two campaign-specific e-mails for more negotiations.

Getting a Bug Out of Windows

Much like actual insects, Scarab Ransomware's family – along with other RaaSes – are prone to high propagation and thriving in different climates. Some versions use installation techniques with the aid of other threats like the Necurs Botnet. In contrast, others might get a manual installation from an attacker who brute-forces an admin account into a network. Although they're less likely to be intended targets, home users on Windows PCs are also at risk from the Bioawards Ransomware's file-locking behavior.

Users should never save their only backups as the Windows Restore Points, which the Bioawards Ransomware is thoroughly capable of deleting. Malware experts also caution that some security features, such as boot-up warning messages or the Windows Firewall, could be unavailable during infections. Fortunately, there's no evidence of the Bioawards Ransomware's passing sensitive information over to an attacker's server or conducting attacks that aren't directly related to the file-sabotage-and-ransom tactic.

Most file-locking Trojans are detectable by appropriate PC security suites. Users can protect Windows systems through up-to-date security solutions that remove the Bioawards Ransomware on sight. However, doing so doesn't remedy any related security problems, such as cracked passwords or encrypted files.

File-locking Trojans fluent in multiple languages can give hints about which regions they target, but English is a more-universal choice for global threats. The Bioawards Ransomware could appear almost anywhere on a vulnerable Windows computer, and only a guarded backup can stop its presence from turning into chaos for any files.