Hlpp Ransomware

The Hlpp Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that's a part of the Dharma Ransomware's family, a years-old Ransomware-as-a-Service. Users should focus on backup security as an essential element in countering the infections, which can make files non-opening permanently. Anti-malware services also play valuable supporting roles in removing the Hlpp Ransomware and blocking the most common Trojan-installing exploits.

Once a Trojan, Always a Trojan, Regardless of Its Name

Name, theme, and extension-swapping behavior is a stable trait of most of the broader families of file-locking Trojans, whether they're semi-freeware like Hidden Tear, a Trojan-building kit's output, or a more sophisticated Ransomware-as-a-Service member. Despite campaign cycles, the Hlpp Ransomware is barely different from the elderly Dharma Ransomware that started up its family, a sub-division of the even older Crysis Ransomware. Like 2020's HCK Ransomware, Dr Ransomware, or 2019's Kr Ransomware and Wiki Ransomware, its payload is encryption, and its aim is ransom money.

The Hlpp Ransomware, with a seemingly randomly-chosen name in the same vein as STOP Ransomware, uses secured AES encryption for blocking content, with the usual targets including documents, databases, music, spreadsheets, pictures, and other media. Its name is a derivative of the filename-changing feature, which appends the 'hlpp' extension, as well as a victim ID and an e-mail. As with most Trojans of the type, malware experts confirm the Hlpp Ransomware's being a Windows program.

Although the blocking of data is the Hlpp Ransomware's first campaign goal, its second one is the gathering of ransom money: through HTA and TXT messages. However, these messages offer almost no content to victims besides a demand to negotiate over e-mail, some generic warnings, and a deadline. Nonetheless, the HTA, especially, is useful for confirming the family of the infection, which helps users with establishing the possibility – or, in this case, the absence – of free decryption applications.

Little Trojans Creating Oversized Problems

With a total executable size of less than a megabyte, users might presume that the Hlpp Ransomware isn't capable of causing many problems. Unfortunately, encryption, even with airtight security around it, is a code size-efficient feature that can remove most of the contents of a hard drive from the user's control. Malware experts also recommend abiding by standard defensive steps for limiting file-locking Trojans:

• Users should avoid illicit downloads, such as game cracks, at all costs, due to the high chances of the file carrying a Trojan of this threat category.
• When it's practical, users should turn off any exploitable browser and word processor features, including macros, Java, JavaScript and Flash.
• All users, and administrators without question, should select their passwords with all due concern towards complexity and a lack of the generic or default strings that could assist a brute-force attack.
• Backing up files always should include at least one copy to another device with a separate form of security, preventing the Hlpp Ransomware from encrypting or deleting it.

The Hlpp Ransomware's destiny might become little more than one page in the long tome of the Dharma Ransomware history, but that doesn't make it unimportant. Any victims who underestimate the risks that it poses will find themselves in a situation where ransoms, or letting their digital work go to ashes, are their best options.