UselessDisk Ransomware

The UselessDisk Ransomware is a disk-wiper Trojan that can hijack your PC's startup routine and prevent the operating system from loading. Instead, the user boots into a screen displaying a ransom message from the Trojan's threat actor, which demands payments for a Bitcoin wallet. This Trojan has the potential for destroying data on your hard drive permanently, and malware experts advise having anti-malware security products for removing the UselessDisk Ransomware before its symptoms become visible.

A not So Useless Example of Extortionist Software

Although a ransom note on your computer is often one clue of a file-locking Trojan, threats aren't always identifiable through the symptoms of their attacks. Threat actors are also more than capable of collecting ransoms for pretending to restore the files that are unrecoverable, as in the UselessDisk Ransomware campaign. This threat restarts the victim's PC for loading a ransoming message asking for money but also damages the system in such a way that it may make any files present corrupted permanently.

Although several cyber-security companies are, reportedly, updating their databases at this article's date of authorship, less than a dozen AV brands are identifying the current samples of the UselessDisk Ransomware as being threats. If it isn't quarantined or deleted, the UselessDisk Ransomware overwrites the MBR, similarly to the MBRlock Ransomware, Shamoon, or the AMBA Ransomware. The UselessDisk Ransomware also restarts the computer automatically, which forces the victim to use the UselessDisk Ransomware's custom boot-loading routine.

This loader blocks the Windows startup process and, instead, shows a text screen with a ransom note. The message is similar to those of a file-locking threat like Hidden Tear, and asks for three hundred USD, in Bitcoins, to a specific address, for unlocking your files. However, malware experts are seeing no definitive evidence of the UselessDisk Ransomware's payload having the intention of encrypting (or decrypting) any data, which makes the ransom a hoax.

Guaranteeing that the UselessDisk Ransomware Stays as Useless as Possible

The UselessDisk Ransomware may look like another version of Trojans like the Crysis Ransomware or Hidden Tear but has no capabilities for tracking payments and doesn't customize its ransoming content. Furthermore, repairing the MBR doesn't restore the compromised hard drive, which returns a partition-based error, instead of booting to Windows. Together, these traits are usual for threats that malware experts dub as disk-wiping Trojans, which makes the paying of the UselessDisk Ransomware's decryption fee into a wholly non-beneficial act.

Any infection methods in use by the UselessDisk Ransomware's campaign are purely speculative, for now. Trojans with disk-wiping capabilities often are introduced to targets of national significance, such as businesses maintaining energy services, via e-mail or brute-force attacks. Backing up anything valuable on a vulnerable PC also can help with the recovery process after removing the UselessDisk Ransomware with anti-malware tools and, if it's appropriate, reinstalling Windows from scratch.

The UselessDisk Ransomware has nothing to offer to those who pay it except disappointment, which is why preventing its infection is so important. Victims of such attacks should remember that the words of Trojans are no more trustworthy than the people who write them in the first place.