Defray Ransomware

The Defray Ransomware is a Trojan that collects ransom money from hospitals and other businesses by encrypting the files on their PCs. Because the Defray Ransomware's potential for causing permanent data loss is high, all users should try to prevent an infection by following appropriate security protocols, particularly for any Internet-connected systems. Anti-malware programs can remove the Defray Ransomware, but any victims will need to contact cyber security researchers for help with any decryption solutions.

A Trojan Whose Entry Method is Just for You

Most PC users think of Trojan attacks as precipitating from a generic drive-by-download attack or related mistakes, such as exposure to a fake Flash update or malvertising. Although such methods remain common (such as in an adware like Norassie), with the rise of potential profitability, threat actors often put more effort into customized their delivery strategies. Such attacks are evident with the newest campaign of the Defray Ransomware particularly, a file-locking Trojan asking for thousands of dollars in ransoms.

Also referenced by the alias of Glushkov Ransomware (deriving from its threat actor's email address), the Defray Ransomware installs itself through custom-crafted attachments from incoming spam emails. These documents include content associated with the targeted business entity, such as fake patient reports for hospital servers. When it downloads, the Defray Ransomware's main file uses a misleading name that pretends to be a default part of Windows like explorer.exe.

The Defray Ransomware proceeds with encrypting and locking files of different formats using a traditional combination of the AES, which it follows with the RSA for securing the decrypting key. Malware experts can verify that the Defray Ransomware's list of extensions to block is hard coded, meaning that the Trojan isn't likely for being a RaaS. Along with the usual targets, such as documents and archives, the Defray Ransomware also affects highly-specific ones pertinent to the industries it attacks: some examples include DJVU, MATLAB, SQLITE3 and VMWAREVM. There is no current data available on whether or not the Defray Ransomware changes the names of any of the locked files, such as by appending new extensions.

Beating the Trojan that's Wielding Razor-Honed Social Engineering

The Defray Ransomware is a narrowly-targeted threat whose campaign uses infection vectors customized for particular companies and even individual workers within them particularly. Users should be vigilant concerning DOC-formatted email attachments especially, which are the Defray Ransomware's primary form of distribution to date. Expect any email content or attachments to use topics implying that they're official notifications related to the business in question.

Active anti-malware programs may identify either the Defray Ransomware or the document-based installers that this threat's campaign is using, so far. No decryption freeware is available for reversing any damages that this Trojan causes, which makes backups the only solution for retrieving any blocked files potentially. This threat's payload does include some limited networking features, and malware experts recommend disabling all network connections and removing the Defray Ransomware with an appropriate security program as soon as you can.

A Trojan's payload being threatening to anyone with common formats of files generically doesn't have to mean that every aspect of its campaign is indiscriminate equally. The Defray Ransomware is an extreme example of threat actors specializing aiming at very particular targets, which, unfortunately, could justify the five thousand dollar ransoms they're trying to collect.