Moka Ransomware

The Moka Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan from the Ransomware-as-a-Service known as both the STOP Ransomware and the Djvu Ransomware. Besides blocking media on your computer, the Moka Ransomware also can create ransom messages that sell its unlocking service, remove backups, and drop other threats, such as spyware. Let your anti-malware products delete the Moka Ransomware or quarantine it immediately and maintain secure backups for damage mitigation.

A Little Ransom with Your Mocaccino

A fresh-off-the-press release of the STOP Ransomware family's RaaS business is using the French word for mocha as its brand for targeting victims. Unlike the titular chocolate beverage, there's little that's appetizing about the Moka Ransomware, whose ransom messages remain in English. However, encryption is, for most Trojans, a border-indiscriminate feature and can block files whether the PC is in North America, Europe or Asia.

The Moka Ransomware's payload remains capable of targeting digital media, such as archives, documents, pictures, and music, and encrypts them using an AES and RSA combination. The latter half of its file-locking routine depends on information that it downloads from its server – so that victims who disable their Internet connections immediately may have better chances of recovering their data afterward. Unfortunately, the Moka Ransomware includes a precaution against the Windows Restore Points that would be the usual default for recovery and erases them.

Malware experts see no noteworthy changes in the text message that the Moka Ransomware drops. Its family-shared template even uses communal addresses for negotiating, similarly to the Cosakos Ransomware, the Londec Ransomware, the Nasoh Ransomware and the Peta Ransomware. Victims should think twice before paying the ransom it asks for since criminals are capable of withholding their help after getting the non-refundable payment.

As usual, the Moka Ransomware uses a deadline for pressuring users into paying quickly before realizing all of the drawbacks of this extortion.

Wiping Off the Flavor of the Moka Ransomware

Disadvantages of the Moka Ransomware infections extend to more than losing all your locally-stored work. The Moka Ransomware also may install AZORult, a spyware program that can collect passwords and other credentials, including cryptocurrency wallet logins. While encryption is resolvable easily by users backing up their work, losing a password can mean further loss of money or privacy that isn't as easily fixable. Users at risk should follow safe web-browsing practices that will prevent Trojan attacks preemptively as a matter of course.

The STOP Ransomware family that the Moka Ransomware belongs to, one of the most prominent RaaS groups of 2019, is noted for emphasizing Asian distribution, but not exclusively so. It also tends towards torrents and brute-forcing attacks that are effective against software pirates and servers without strong passwords. RDP features also can come into play in many installation exploits, and malware experts recommend turning them off or securing them appropriately at all times.

Regardless of its unique dangers, the Moka Ransomware and its family are well-analyzed threats. Nearly all anti-malware programs should remove the Moka Ransomware easily from any Windows computer.

The Moka Ransomware scarcely is any better for your files than a mocha a day is for your bodily health. Data destruction may market itself in an appealing package – such as a downloadable movie or crack – but no one appreciates the aftereffects.