R44s Ransomware

The R44s Ransomware is a newly discovered variant of the Ranion Ransomware. Ransomware like R44s, encrypts its victim's data and demands a ransom payment in exchange for a decryption key. Due to the secure cipher algorithm that the R44s Ransomware employs, any data encrypted by it may be lost.

The R44s Ransomware is being distributed in a several ways. One of the most common tactics for distributing file-encoding viruses such as R44s is through spam emails containing corrupted attachments, which execute installation macros after being opened. The files are often Word or .pdf documents providing valuable information, purportedly. The R44s Ransomware installations also my be disguised in freeware bundles.

Once the R44s Ransomware has encrypted the user's important files successfully, it will append them with the .r44s extension. For example, once a file named ''vacationphoto.jpg'' is encrypted by the R44s Ransomware, it will be renamed to ''vacationphoto.jpg.r44s''.

After encryption, the R44s Ransomware drops a ransom note named ''README_TO_DECRYPT_FILES.html'' on the user's desktop, with instructions about contacting the threat actors and the amount of the ransom demands.

The hackers behind the R44s Ransomware demand 1 Bitcoin for the decryption tool. 1 Bitcoin is worth nearly $6 thousand at the writing of this article. To instill a sense of urgency, the attackers have written in red font, that the key to decrypt the victim's files will be deleted in 7 days, making the process of recovering the lost data hard, if not impossible.

Unfortunately, deleting the R44 Ransomware will not restore the files to their original state either, so having backups of important files on external storage devices is always a good precautionary step. Keeping your system up to date and having a legitimate anti-virus software also should keep the chance of getting infected by ransomware such as the R44s Ransomware to a minimum.