LockMe Ransomware

The LockMe Ransomware is a file-locker Trojan that can use encryption to withhold your files from you until you agree to its ransom, even though paying doesn't always deliver an unlocking solution. The LockMe Ransomware also may modify its payload slightly for corresponding to the user's local language settings. Users who want to keep their media secure should maintain updated backups and have their anti-malware programs delete the LockMe Ransomware upon its detection.

The Trojan that's Fluent in Extorting Bitcoins

Threat actors began another campaign using the blocking of files as a motivator for Bitcoin ransoms, as of February. The new Trojan of the LockMe Ransomware is modular and may or may not be RaaS-based, and malware researchers are still investigating all possible infection exploits. While many of its characteristics are standard, the LockMe Ransomware does have an exceptionally flexible means of delivering its ransom notes.

Like many file-locking threats from recent years, the LockMe Ransomware uses modules for compartmentalizing its functions and making their loading and unloading as simple as possible. Right now, the LockMe Ransomware includes a data-uploading module, but only for handling its Notepad ransom messages, by selecting the appropriate instructions for the user's local language. Malware experts are estimating that the LockMe Ransomware, in development, was Russian, although its attacks tailor themselves to victims around the world.

Regardless of the language, the LockMe Ransomware's messages ask for just over two hundred USD in Bitcoins for recovering your files and use e-mail negotiations for further assistance. The LockMe Ransomware's central attack function and an AES-based encryption routine will scan different formats of data that it can block for motivating the ransom's payment. Searching for the '.lockme encrypted' extension can identify any locked media, and the LockMe Ransomware also salts each file's internal data.

Free Yourself from a LockMe Ransomware Attack

Since it's without a definite family, free decryption solutions may or may not be capable of retrieving any content that the LockMe Ransomware is locking. Victims can contact experienced PC security researchers, ones with long-term experience with file-locking threats particularly, for additional help on any emergency data-recovery methods that may be available. Backups, especially ones isolated on separate devices, are the most secure defense against the LockMe Ransomware's payload, and one that malware experts always endorse.

Most file-locking threats use some combination of e-mail messages, associated file attachments or brute-force assaults against network logins to compromise a PC. However, there also exist some campaigns that abuse lesser-used techniques, such as website-running exploit kits and torrents. Scanning your downloads with proper security software can facilitate catching and removing the LockMe Ransomware before it causes issues, which always is simpler than unlocking your media after the fact.

The LockMe Ransomware is a simple but ambitious Trojan that can customize its attacks for an array of targets geographically. Stopping your files from becoming the next victims of the LockMe Ransomware's silver tongue is always as simple as minding your basic standards for data storage and Web security.