Silenced Ransomware

The Silenced Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that can block your PC's files and hold them for ransom. The Silenced Ransomware symptoms include changing the extensions of the hostage media, along with hijacking your Windows wallpaper. Users should avoid paying this fine without testing every other recovery possibility, keep secure backups, and use anti-malware products for eliminating the Silenced Ransomware safely.

A Quiet Trojan Getting Ready to Make some Noise

An 'indie' threat like the SystemCrypter Ransomware, the LooCipher Ransomware, or the Silenced Ransomware reminds PC users that not all Trojans are service-based. Some threat actors favor creating file-locking Trojans without paying fees to third parties, which provides them with additional control over infrastructure and other options. Although malware experts are classifying the Silenced Ransomware as in mid-development, many aspects of its payload are functional.

This Windows Trojan uses encryption with an unidentified algorithm for locking the user's Word documents, JPG pictures, and similar formats of media. It also continues the usual symptomatic behavior of adding extensions ('try,' in this case) to the names of what it blocks. Whether or not the owner tampers with the filenames any further, the file can't open until it goes through a compatible decryption routine.

Malware researchers also are seeing desktop-hijacking behavior from the Silenced Ransomware, which it uses for replacing the background with its ransom note. An unusual touch is in its Bitcoin wallet account, which collects the 476 USD-value coins. The address is in active use, but not for ransom-related purposes solely, which is an unconventional choice by the threat actor. However, the full release of the Silenced Ransomware may include a different link. No transaction history data currently match the ransom demand of the threat's wallpaper.

Quieting Trojans that Take Files to Get Money

A preemptive series of security protocols can keep Trojans nearing release, like the Silenced Ransomware, from situating themselves to harm your PC or its contents. Backing up one's digital media to other devices is an especially crucial step that will prevent file-locking Trojans without freeware decryptors from placing you in a data hostage-based scenario. Encryption is easily securable, and it's statistically-unwise to assume that a public unlocker will be possible for the Silenced Ransomware.

Although many of the Silenced Ransomware's characteristics are subject to possible changes, in the future, malware experts do note some useful cues in its current disguises. Executables for this Trojan are pretending that they're Microsoft Windows components, such as DLLHost or a Windows update. Avoiding update prompts from non-official sources will prevent users from installing a disguised Trojan unintentionally, and downloads that are analyzed by appropriate cyber-security software should receive flagging if they're threats.

Most anti-malware programs are finding current samples of this Trojan. Such products always are recommended by malware analysts for when users require uninstalling the Silenced Ransomware.

Getting an update from the wrong place can be a fast track to having your files held captive, but the Silenced Ransomware's campaign may find its way around the Web in more ways than that. Users without backups should start implementing them before it's too late for their media.