Space_rangers@aol.com Ransomware

Posted: August 26, 2016

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:	31

First Seen:	August 26, 2016
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware is a Trojan that takes your files hostage via encryption algorithms and sells a possible decryption solution back to you. Even if you do pay the Trojan's fee, these attacks can cause permanent damage to your saved data and have no guarantee of being reversible. PC owners with any valuable data should consider creating copies in locations unlikely of being compromised while leaving the removal of the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware to their anti-malware programs.

Trojans Ranging Abroad for Your Files and Money

Renaming files or altering their names in unusual ways are classical elements of Trojans specializing in data encryption. Although this function can be used to the benefit of the victim by helping them identify the attack's impact, they also can confuse the identities of affected data and cause other issues. Malware experts can show the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware as an example of threatening software with a renaming convention not conforming to the expected formats of most Trojan families.

Recorded 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware attacks began in 2015, with Russian-speaking PC users being the most affected. The 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware scans any accessible drives, potentially including any attached storage devices or network-mapped drives, for data worth encrypting, such as Word documents. In addition to using an unidentified algorithm for encrypting them, the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware also makes substantial changes to their names by inserting a range of miscellaneous data, including the date, an ID tag, semi-random characters, its e-mail and a new extension.

Threat actors responsible for these campaigns most often use their e-mail communications to ask for ransom fees, although they may not make any immediate demands. Malware experts are wary of encouraging any PC user, no matter how severely affected, to pay this fee. Using illicitly-promoted decryptors can cause even more damage to your data and make it unrecoverable by more legitimate options, such as tools provided by the PC security industry.

You also may see other symptoms, including, most widely, desktop-hijackings to display threatening images or newly-generated TXT messages.

Sending Attempted PC Extortion out to Space

Among other details of the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware attacks, malware researchers found the most interest in its appending the '.xyz' extension to the encoded files. This extension also is shared with the '.xyz File Extension' Ransomware, making the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware a potential relative of TeslaCrypt. Since TeslaCrypt does have free decryptors available (thanks to its authors releasing the relevant keys and decommissioning its campaign), PC owners may be able to restore their data completely without paying a ransom or even using backups.

However, the above recovery method is uncertain, and even nearly identical variants of old Trojans can create new obstacles within their encryption routines. Keeping a backup on one, if not multiple, locations unlikely of being contaminated is malware researchers' strong recommendation.

You should leave recovering data until after you've removed the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware with any preferred anti-malware services. No matter how old it may be, the 'Space_rangers@aol.com' Ransomware is capable of causing damages that are easier to prevent than they are to correct.

Space_rangers@aol.com Ransomware

Threat Metric

Trojans Ranging Abroad for Your Files and Money

Sending Attempted PC Extortion out to Space

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