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Monument Ransomware

Posted: March 28, 2017

Threat Metric

Ranking: 14,974
Threat Level: 8/10
Infected PCs: 1,012
First Seen: March 28, 2017
Last Seen: August 10, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows

The Monument Ransomware is a Trojan that can encrypt your files to lock them and may delete them periodically, supposedly until you pay its ransom. PC users compromised by this threat should take appropriate steps to disable it and use anti-malware products for removing the Monument Ransomware safely. Recovering any locked data can be done through free decryption software or, ideally, a backup, if available.

A Monument to the Jigsaw Ransomware's Continuing Danger

Although it should seem obvious for updates to old Trojans to be a bad thing for their victims, not all of these malware patches are equal. Some, such as the Jigsaw Ransomware renovation of the Monument Ransomware, include new features that can complicate any disinfection attempts significantly. While the Monument Ransomware possesses the file-encrypting and erasing attacks of the older Trojan, its threat actors also gave it a new feature that could lock you out of your operating system's UI completely.

Although its distribution strategies are unknown, malware experts are finding file data in the Monument Ransomware implying that its threat actors are disguising it as an installation file for unrelated freeware. The executable is a cracked version of the Imminent Monitor RAT (or Remote Access Trojan) that downloads and deploys its version of the Jigsaw Ransomware: the Monument Ransomware.

The Monument Ransomware's features of note include:

  • An encryption attack encodes different formats of files on your PC to block them from opening. The usual targets include documents, spreadsheets, archives and pictures.
  • In common with its predecessor, the Monument Ransomware also may delete a small number of your files selected at random, based on a timer, as well as whenever the PC restarts.
  • The Monument Ransomware's greatest shift away from the old Jigsaw Ransomware is the DarkLocker component that it uses for displaying its decryption-ransoming message. Although the Jigsaw Ransomware also includes a similar feature, the Monument Ransomware's version of it lacks any checks for ransom payments and will continue to lock you out of your desktop indefinitely.

The Monument Ransomware offers up all of the expected dangers of the Jigsaw Ransomware family with another impediment that could form a synergy with its file-deleting feature. Additional security risks posed by the Monument Ransomware's RAT-based Trojan downloader also could give con artists a degree of access to your computer for collecting information or installing new threats. Finally, even if the Monument Ransomware offers a ransom-based way of recovering your files, paying isn't certain to give you a real decryptor.

You should limit infected PCs from rebooting as much as possible, as well as sever any network connectivity temporarily. If necessary, restarting your PC through a recovery USB device can help you avoid loading the screen-locker window. Although free decryption options for the Jigsaw Ransomware variants are extant, you should prioritize disabling and quarantining or removing the Monument Ransomware to protect your PC from any further damage. The word from malware researchers is that the Monument Ransomware's threat actors are deploying the Trojan against both Spanish and English-speaking targets currently.

The classical 'rock and a hard place' situation that the Monument Ransomware puts its victims into is meant to make them act in haste and pay the ransoms without hesitating. Nonetheless, the reality of getting disinfection help from the same people who compromised your PC is often a price you pay both in money and files.

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