PPDDDP Ransomware

The PPDDDP Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that encrypts some media on your computer securely, but also corrupts and damages other ones. In other respects, it operates similarly to competing threats and uses an HTML file for promoting its Bitcoin-based unlocking service. Users should, as always, depend on backups for recovering any data while having anti-malware products available for deleting the PPDDDP Ransomware on sight.

Trojans Rolling the Dice on What Happens to Your Files

A new file-locking Trojan in the threat landscape is anything but a strange sight, as the ongoing growth of Ransomware-as-a-Service families emphasizes daily. Besides its very conventional demands for Bitcoins, however, the PPDDDP Ransomware is a peculiar case for a file-locking Trojan. Malware analysts are connecting infections with not just the usual encryption but also with permanent file damage.

The PPDDDP Ransomware is in the wild and infecting Windows users with not-yet-identifiable strategies, which could run from brute-forcing random servers' passwords to circulating with fake illicit downloads like torrents. Its motive is selling an unlocking service after 'locking' the user's files, which is standard. The PPDDDP Ransomware isn't a relative of a known RaaS family and uses a unique set of filters for which types of data it locks.

Far more significantly than its choices of data types, the PPDDDP Ransomware isn't consistent about what it does to them. The first few files of each folder receive 'normal' encryption that encodes the content securely and is, in theory, reversible. However, others, which also don't acquire the trademark extension from the Trojan's name, only become corrupted and may not be recoverable by any means. Whether this strange behavior is a bug or purposeful is not yet determinable through the sample intelligence available to malware analysts.

Taking the Uncertainty Out of What's in Your Files

Differences in icons and names can help users with identifying and sorting their damaged and encrypted data, but removing these changes doesn't put the owners any closer to recovering the underlying content. It's possible that the PPDDDP Ransomware doesn't delete the Restore Points in all attacks, and users could test advanced data recovery tools. However, most victims should fall back to their latest, secure backup, and ideally, one that they've saved onto another device.

Disguises that file-locking Trojans may use include copyright-infringing media torrents, game-hacking tools, software updates from Web advertisements, and workplace-related documents in e-mails. Disabling JavaScript, Flash, and document or spreadsheet-based macros will remove most of the vulnerabilities that facilitate drive-by-downloads. Admins also should monitor their passwords for possible brute-force attack risks.

Always install updates for your anti-malware services regularly. An updated database is the best, final defensive line against file-locker Trojans and will help with deleting the PPDDDP Ransomware before any harm comes to your files.

The PPDDDP Ransomware may not see any harm in playing games with strangers' files, as long as it doesn't impact their bottom line. But such indiscriminate attacks show that paying a ransom is a fruitless solution for many victims, who would do better if they followed standard data storage and recovery protocols.