YKUP Ransomware

The YKUP Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that's part of the Dharma Ransomware, a Ransomware-as-a-Service. The YKUP Ransomware launches attacks against the victim's files that block them by encrypting their contents. The presence of backups for a full recovery and anti-malware products for deleting the YKUP Ransomware safely are necessary defenses equally.

Ransomware-as-a-Service Keeps on Serving Hackers

The Dharma Ransomware, also noted by the label of the Crysis Ransomware (after an earlier variant than the Dharma Ransomware build), is one of the most influential Ransomware-as-a-Service families going into 2020. Four years of attacks may provide few shifts in how the Trojans accomplish their criminal activities but offer threat actors easy-to-use software for making money nearly passively. While the distribution rates of a new model, the YKUP Ransomware, are up in the air, it operates with similar principles for endangering media for pay.

The YKUP Ransomware creates visible symptoms, such as pop-ups and desktop-located text messages, but only after finishing its goal of blocking files. The YKUP Ransomware attacks the user's media (documents, pictures, et cetera) with an AES encryption routine with additional, RSA security for impeding any reverse-engineering efforts. The YKUP Ransomware includes both an e-mail address and the first portion of its name as unique extensions that it adds onto the files that it 'captures.'

With a completed encryption process, the YKUP Ransomware solicits ransom payments for the unlocker, which is  available for those who pay theoretically. Malware experts, unfortunately, classify most updates of the Dharma Ransomware as being impossible for decrypting without the keys in the threat actor's possession. Because the YKUP Ransomware also destroys Windows local backups, additional backup platforms on other dev, particularly, are nearly mandatory for a free recovery.

Throwing a Spanner in the Works of Illegal Profiteering

Criminals renting out a Ransomware-as-a-Service, by definition, choose their distribution methods for their campaigns. Accordingly, the YKUP Ransomware could spread through means that malware experts can't account for, although the chances of its doing so are minor. Users have the best opportunities for protecting themselves by refusing illicit downloads, ignoring updates from non-official links, and making use of all available security patches.

Past attacks related to RaaS families like the Dharma Ransomware, the STOP Ransomware, or the Globe Ransomware also suggest some exploits as being more probable against networks, either business-based or otherwise. E-mail attachments with believable disguises like invoices or shipping notices, brute-force-cracking logins for admin accounts, and hijacking RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) are all possible equally. They also are just as preventable by admins maintaining standard security guidelines.

While it should be a last resort, anti-malware tools should catch and delete the YKUP Ransomware when it's appropriate. Disinfection doesn't restore files, and users shouldn't confuse threat protection suites with data recovery services.

The YKUP Ransomware is nothing but more problems for Windows, just like the 8800 Ransomware, the Devil Ransomware, the Bitx Ransomware, the Kharma Ransomware, and its other cousins. This numberless family is as functionally infinite as criminal greed, which is why everyone should assume that they're possible targets.