RansomUserLocker Ransomware

The RansomUserLocker Ransomware is part of the Hidden Tear family of Trojans that lock the media of their victims. While the RansomUserLocker Ransomware's development build limits its attacks to narrow locations on the PC, malware analysts expect that updates will make the Trojan capable of holding a majority of files in most folders hostage, once it's ready for deploying. Have your anti-malware products block and delete the RansomUserLocker Ransomware when it's appropriate, and use backups or free decryption assistance for file-recovering purposes.

Another Trojan onto the Pile of Korea's Troubles

The next version of Hidden Tear is showcasing the propensity for Trojans to inform the users that they attack with misinformation, which helps them with soliciting ransom payments and other behavior that's against the victim's best interests. The RansomUserLocker Ransomware is a Trojan borrowing its warnings from the VenusLocker Ransomware campaign, and malware experts note its payload as being specialized for South Koreans. However, any Windows PC, regardless of region, should be vulnerable to the RansomUserLocker Ransomware's features for locking files.

Like most versions of the Turkish-built Hidden Tear project, the RansomUserLocker Ransomware uses AES-based encryption for locking different kinds of media automatically, including documents and pictures on the computer. The development version of the RansomUserLocker Ransomware, which is the only sample that malware experts are detecting in any threat databases, only attacks the user's desktop. However, changing this parameter is trivial. Any files that are affected will not open until the user can re-convert the data with a compatible decryptor.

This attack omits any immediately detectable symptoms, but the RansomUserLocker Ransomware creates an advanced HTML pop-up after the fact. This VenusLocker Ransomware-based warning lies to the victim about the nature of the RansomUserLocker Ransomware's encryption (by claiming that it uses an RSA-4096 algorithm) and demands one Bitcoin or over ten thousand US dollars before its author provides the decryption code for unlocking your files. Some sources also report of the same threat actor being responsible for an additional campaign, that of the 'Talk Ransomware,' although malware analysts have yet to verify this speculation.

Don't be a User of Ransoms for Easily Solved Problems

Without extra investment in securing its cryptography attacks, threat actors who use Hidden Tear run the risk of having any encrypted files unlocked by a variety of freeware tools that the cybersecurity industry hosts. Since the RansomUserLocker Ransomware lacks any capabilities for spreading to separate systems or devices without any help, the users also can eliminate most of the dangers of the RansomUserLocker Ransomware infections by keeping their backups elsewhere. Contacting a PC security researcher with long-term experience versus file-locking Trojans is the recommendation of malware experts for circumstances where the hostage media is irreplaceable.

Internally, the RansomUserLocker Ransomware does have some file data associated with 'vaping,' AKA the hobby of electronic cigarette smoking. However, this string could be an artifact of past builds and doesn't inform on the RansomUserLocker Ransomware's distribution exploits necessarily. Malware experts can recommend no protection better than having anti-malware programs scan all new files regularly to delete the RansomUserLocker Ransomware before it damages your media.

As a hub of economic activity, South Korea is a recurring favorite for threat actors wishing to siphon money off of the top. For anyone there with an Internet connection and files that are worth anything, the RansomUserLocker Ransomware gives a reminder of the hand-in-hand value of data redundancy and general network security.