COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware

The COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that can prevent you from opening files on your computer. The COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware may harm a variety of formats, such as documents and music, and paying the ransom it demands doesn't guarantee any data retrieval. Let anti-malware services protect your computer by removing the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware on its detection, and maintain backups for damage mitigation appropriately.

The Breaking Light Reveals Another Scurrying Bug

What is showing characteristic signs of being an appendage of the Aurora Ransomware family is appearing out in the wild as of October this year. Thanks to the early reports from an Iranian university's security researcher, the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware may be contained and mitigated before it causes much harm. The counterbalance to this good news is that the Trojan also represents another danger to users without established backups.

The Aurora Ransomware family is small but contains unpredictably-emerging variants, such as the Dragon Ransomware, the Isolated Ransomware, the hellstaff@india.com Ransomware and the CryptoID Ransomware. Some versions include language-based victim filters, although malware researchers can't delineate the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware's campaign's geographic distribution. The Trojan can, like its fellows, block multiple formats of non-essential media, including, unusually, LNK or link files, as well as the traditional documents, pictures, etc.

The COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware adds both an e-mail address that's unique to its campaign and a 'COCKROACH' string onto the files that it blocks. Once it concludes these changes, it drops a TXT message, just like most Aurora Ransomware Trojans. However, the instructions give very little information besides a repetition of the e-mail, an ID, and an English-based 'call to arms' for the ransom.

Cockroach-Proofing a Cyber-Home

Just as one would take precautions for keeping insect infestations out of a building, any PC user should abide by widely-accepted standards for thwarting Trojan infections before they occur. Besides the more all-encompassing solutions, malware analysts also recommend taking steps that are relevant to the most highly-trafficked infection vectors for file-locker Trojans.

Windows users can reduce the possibility of exposure to the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware by:

• Browsing the Web with security settings (such as turning off scripts and advertisements).
• Using durable login credentials.
• Avoiding leaving RDP features publicly accessible.
• Refusing illicit or suspicious download sources (such as torrents).
• Scanning e-mail attachments with security solutions.

Michael Gillespie's AuroraDecryptor offers free 'unlocking' services that are the only form of Aurora Ransomware decryption that malware researchers can endorse in good conscience. However, it may require updating for having compatibility with the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware. Backups saved to spare devices can give another recovery path, and anti-malware software should delete the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware automatically, under the usual circumstances.

As the COCKROACH_LOCKER Ransomware skitters to its next victim by unknown pathways, Windows users should have their pesticides on-hand. Whatever the reality of its origins is, it's another Trojan hoping that it can make a mark out of unprotected users without backups – and, hopefully, the public will prove it wrong.