No_More_Ransom Ransomware

The No_More_Ransom Ransomware is a variant of the Rapid Ransomware, a Ransomware-as-a-Service family. These file-locking Trojans encrypt your media and hold it hostage until you pay a ransom, although paying has uncertain rates of success for acquiring a decryptor. Having well-maintained backups is an appropriate precaution against these attacks, and most anti-malware programs should delete the No_More_Ransom Ransomware as a danger to your PC.

A Trojan's Rapid Attempt to Make a Buck

Another version of the Rapid Ransomware's RaaS business is in threat databases, weeks after the SARansom Ransomware, one of the last variants that malware researchers could confirm. Whether the new one, the No_More_Ransom Ransomware, belongs to an updated baseline like the Rapid 2.0 Ransomware or is a split off from the original, file-locker Trojan is not yet knowable. However, its encryption routine and, therefore, its ability for locking the files remain just as threatening as ever.

The No_More_Ransom Ransomware uses an AES-based encryption feature that it secures with a pair of RSA keys, one of which is private. Besides locking the user's files and changing their names by providing a personal extension (as referenced in its name), the No_More_Ransom Ransomware also erases the Windows Shadow Volume Copies or the Restore Points and disables some recovery features. It implements these subsequent attacks through a hidden series of command-line-based instructions to Windows and, in no case, does it give the user any warning of this behavior.

This Trojan also creates an English, Notepad-based ransoming message with the threat actor's e-mail and an identification serial number. Malware experts are tracking a diverse range of behavior from criminals using Ransomware-as-a-Service threats like the No_More_Ransom Ransomware, which use third-party threat actors for their administrators. Paying is not a sure way to get a decryptor, and there also are cases of victims paying for a Rapid Ransomware decryption solution and receiving software that corrupts their files instead of unlocking them.

Easing the Pace of a Rapid Ransomware Spinoff's Money-Collecting

The No_More_Ransom Ransomware's family uses two standard infection strategies for compromising their victims' PCs. Threat actors may send disguised e-mail messages tricking their readers into downloading and running a corrupted attachment, or they may brute-force admin access to a network by cracking the login credentials. In either case, the criminals using the Rapid Ransomware Trojans prefer attacking for-profit organizations that have a potential for paying costly ransoms.

Compromised e-mail attachments may disguise themselves as being billing notices or workplace-related reports or messages. Most installers for these file-locker Trojans also will package themselves inside of space-compressed archives such as ZIPs or RARs. Malware experts recommend having anti-malware products available for deleting the No_More_Ransom Ransomware easily, but they also caution that any servers with unsafe login credentials are at risk from manual attacks that your security software can't prevent.

The success of the No_More_Ransom Ransomware's family is in spite of its bad-faith ransoming history, rather than because of it. Anyone willing to pay for getting their files back should, first, take the few minutes that are necessary for protecting them from something as ubiquitous as harmful encryption.