Whoopsie Ransomware

The Whoopsie Ransomware is a file-locker Trojan that can keep documents, pictures, and similar media formats from opening by encrypting the individual files. The Whoopsie Ransomware infections also may include additional symptoms, including pop-ups extorting Bitcoins from their victims. Keeping backups on other devices will provide guaranteed data restoration options without paying a ransom, and various brands of anti-malware programs can delete the Whoopsie Ransomware from your computer safely.

The Consequences of a Not-So-Little Whoopsie-Daisy

Easy-to-use families of file-locker Trojans, from the Hidden Tear project of Utku Sen to RaaS services like the Globe Ransomware, aren't the only competition in the market of blocking files for ransoms. Periodically, malware experts and third-party industry researchers find a minority of samples of Trojans that aren't using this 'prefab' code for their payloads. Individual threats, like the latest the Whoopsie Ransomware, aren't necessarily any safer for your files than widely-dispersed brands like the Jigsaw Ransomware.

Although some early leads place the Whoopsie Ransomware's development in Germany, the Trojan's payload is using English for its ransoming messages and doesn't appear to be filtering out any targets according to their IP addresses, language setup, or other, geography-associated settings. The Whoopsie Ransomware uses the AES encryption, one of the most recurrent cryptography algorithms, for blocking different file types on Windows PCs. Since the Whoopsie Ransomware is in an early development state, malware experts can't, yet, identify a possible decryption solution for unlocking any files with third-party utilities. Victims without any backups should contact appropriate PC security experts for further research on a possible decryptor.

The Whoopsie Ransomware creates a Windows MessageBox-based pop-up for giving the user its ransoming demands. Other than specifying a Bitcoin cost equal to fifty Euros, there is little info in this note, which is still in development and includes some placeholder text. Any users thinking of paying should remember that Bitcoin-based payments let criminals accept payment and, potentially, deny the decryption service without suffering any drawbacks.

Preempting a Data-Destroying Oops

The Whoopsie Ransomware is still in a stage of early development relatively, even though malware researchers continue rating it as a likely source of danger to documents, images and other media on PCs. Current executables for this file-locking Trojan use the name of 'Tree.exe' for unknown reasons but include no other, similarly misleading file data, such as fake company signatures. The usual infection techniques that threat actors abuse for similar campaigns include spam e-mails, brute-force attacks taking advantage of RDP features, and, infrequently, exploit kits or pirated software-downloading networks.

Decryption never is a certainty with any file-locking Trojan, and this is especially relevant to newly-created and independent ones like the Whoopsie Ransomware. Although AES encryption is expedient relatively, criminals can implement it in ways that are secure against third-party solutions for decrypting your data. Saving backups to other devices and letting anti-malware products remove the Whoopsie Ransomware expediently are the only defenses that malware researchers endorse as being surefire solutions.

There's no reason to expect that this Trojan's author will not finish his project and commence with releasing it into the wild, in any number of ways. The Whoopsie Ransomware is representative of the kinds of dangers that even amateur programmers can build in almost no time, and thereby endanger anyone who's not taking good care of their files.