Pr0tector Ransomware

Posted: March 31, 2017

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	10/10
Infected PCs:	14,872

First Seen:	March 31, 2017
Last Seen:	July 19, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Pr0tector Ransomware is a Trojan that can encrypt your data, which its threat actors intend as persuasion for paying their ransoms. Like similar threats, preventing the Pr0tector Ransomware's payload from causing any significant damage is most practically done by keeping a backup that you update regularly. Always isolate or remove the Pr0tector Ransomware with dedicated anti-malware products to prevent it from causing any further damages, no matter what file recovery choices you make.

Programs Protecting Nothing but Their Profits

Since memorability ranks high in threat branding ideology, threat authors aren't beyond naming their Trojans highly ironically. Having a name that gives a false impression of what it does is the Pr0tector Ransomware's main claim to fame, with a still-fresh campaign just launching as of the last week of March. Malware experts estimate that potential attacks are taking place in some regions of South America, including Peru and Chile.

The Pr0tector Ransomware's infection vectors may be persisting through weak Remote Desktop or RDP settings that allow con artists to install the threat without the regular user or admin's consent. Such attacks usually originate from passwords already having been compromised in phishing or brute-forcing attacks. After the hackers install it, the Pr0tector Ransomware loads functions including:

The Pr0tector Ransomware generates a personal ID string, based on the infected system's hostname data. It uses this data in the ransoming message it drops later.
The Pr0tector Ransomware can encrypt your media with a cipher malware analysts still are identifying. The files that it encrypts, and, therefore, locks, can include Microsoft Office media, images, archives, spreadsheets, documents, Web pages, etc.
The filenames of the above receive '.pr0tect' extensions that the Pr0tector Ransomware adds after any already-present ones.
The Trojan's last function is creating a text file with its demands: to contact one of the threat actor's e-mail addresses and purchase the decryption key. Currently, they seem to be demanding ransom amounts in Bitcoins, equivalent to 525 USD. All ransoming negotiations, so far, are using English, despite the Trojan's attacking South American victims.

Protecting Your Files from Becoming Part of a Trojan's Finances

While the Pr0tector Ransomware does have some similarities in its payload to the Dharma Ransomware and is speculated to be a new variant of that threat, malware experts can't verify the relationship. Victims with samples quarantined by their anti-malware software can consider submitting them to respectable anti-malware researchers for further analysis, which also could help produce a free decryptor. If such research avenues fail, any users without backups will have no other choices for recovering their encrypted files.

Keeping your passwords on a rotating schedule, and using ones that adhere to professional security standards, can prevent remote hacking attempts from gaining access to your computer. In other cases, your anti-malware software can identify disguised files that are most likely to harbor threats and remove the Pr0tector Ransomware preemptively. They can include torrent-distributed downloads of pirated software, along with e-mail attachments formatted to resemble 'legitimate' messages.

The Pr0tector Ransomware is in limited distribution, and much remains uncertain about how it spreads, which targets are considered preferential, or how active its threat actors intend on being. Anyone without a habit of backing up their files will want to consider changing that, with virtually unknown file-encrypting Trojans like the Pr0tector Ransomware greeting every new day.

Pr0tector Ransomware

Threat Metric

Programs Protecting Nothing but Their Profits

Protecting Your Files from Becoming Part of a Trojan's Finances

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