InVincible Ransomware

The InVincible Ransomware is a Trojan that claims to be blocking your files until you pay its ransom. For now, malware researchers don't see viable data-locking attacks from this threat, although freeware decryptors and backups may become valuable recovery options if the Trojan is ever updated. Most PC users should block and delete the InVincible Ransomware with standard anti-malware products before giving it a chance to show any of its unrepresentative symptoms.

Trojans Taking Over Windows with Their Ransom Demands

The technicalities of a Trojan aren't always the only characteristics of importance about it. For many file-encoding threats, particularly, malware researchers are finding that the 'window dressing' features also retain value for analyzing Trojan campaigns in-depth. One of the newest of these threats, the possibly incomplete InVincible Ransomware, is making inroads in ransom delivery by taking over an increasingly large part of the Windows UI.

While the InVincible Ransomware doesn't encrypt any files currently, it does create many of the symptoms associated with such attacks, using components that its threat actors misappropriated from the Globe Ransomware family and a variant of the Sage 2.0 Ransomware. The InVincible Ransomware displays an interactive, advanced Web page-based pop-up that shows its encryption warning and gives the victim a time limit for paying Bitcoins to its address. However, the Sage 2.0 Ransomware component uses an unusual implementation method.

As malware experts have yet to find similar traits in its competitors, the InVincible Ransomware may be the first fake file-encrypting Trojan (or real one) to include an entire Windows theme. It uses this theme to display the Sage 2.0 Ransomware's desktop wallpaper, and also may change the Windows' color scheme or sound effects. Note that the InVincible Ransomware's wallpaper doesn't match its pop-up content, which is one clue showing that this threat is almost certainly in mid-development.

Invincibility is Frailer than It Seems

While the InVincible Ransomware's theme feature is mostly a cosmetic one, it does show how the con artists are becoming interested in using social engineering to make victims feel like their PCs are out of their control. If the InVincible Ransomware adds a working encryption feature to its payload, victims will be pressured to pay for its decryption increasingly, which it implies to be part of the rest of the software package. In light of such risks, malware experts always emphasize the bullet-proof nature of remote backups for protecting your media and preventative security measures for blocking Trojan installers.

The InVincible Ransomware could distribute itself through methods needing your consent, such as a fake gaming download or an e-mail attachment appearing to be a work-related document. Other means of infection may bypass the user wholly or partially, such as exploit kits running through hacked domains. This Trojan is evading detection by many brands of security software currently. Always keep your anti-malware programs updated to their latest databases so that you can delete the InVincible Ransomware and other, recently-confirmed threats consistently.

For the present time, the InVincible Ransomware offers far more threatening vocalization than real endangerment to a PC. However, when con artists do so with deceitful and threatening intent, even something as simple as choosing the colors of the Windows GUI can do more damage than one might think.