WickedLocker Ransomware

Posted: November 14, 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:	8/10
Infected PCs:	47

First Seen:	November 14, 2016
Last Seen:	April 14, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The WickedLocker Ransomware is a piece of crypto-threat based on HiddenTear, an open-source ransomware project that con artists may use to built ransomware that encrypts the victim's data quickly and then offers to help with decryption in exchange for money. The the WickedLocker Ransomware is not that different from other HiddenTear Ransomware variants like the KratosCrypt Ransomware and the DevNightmare Ransomware. Just like other variants of HiddenTear, the WickedLocker Ransomware uses an encryption algorithm that malware researchers can reverse successfully, and develop a working decryption utility that is guaranteed to recover the files of victims of the WickedLocker Ransomware.

When the WickedLocker Ransomware infects a computer, it does not notify the users that their files are being encrypted immediately. Instead, the ransomware injects its corrupted code in a background process, which scans through the user's hard drive quickly, and marks the files that will be encrypted later. Since ransomware authors prefer to have their corrupted software work as quickly as possible, they program it only to encrypt particular file types like documents, spreadsheets, photos, small media files, databases, backup files, and file extensions used by popular computer software suites. The WickedLocker Ransomware is the same, and it will only encrypt files that are used to store important or sensitive information that victims would like to restore as soon as possible.

The WickedLocker Ransomware does not use a custom file extension to mark the files it locks. However, users will still be able to recognize which of their files have been locked easily, because the WickedLocker Ransomware creates a new ransom note for each encrypted file by using the following naming pattern 'READ_IT .txt' (e.g. the ransom note for 'document.txt' will be 'READ_IT document.txt'). The ransom message that the WickedLocker Ransomware leaves behind is rather short, and it simply instructs users to contact wickedhosting@gmx.com for additional information and questions, as well as that they are required to pay 1 Bitcoin if they want to learn how to recover their files.

Paying the ransom fee that the WickedLocker Ransomware demands is not recommended, because there is not even a single guarantee that the attackers will help you when you send the money. Furthermore, some of the existing decryptors for HiddenTear variants might be able to restore your files successfully, so you should give this a try before attempting any other file recovery operations. Don't forget that your top priority at the moment should be to eliminate the WickedLocker Ransomware infection with the help of a reliable computer security tool.

WickedLocker Ransomware

Threat Metric

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