'No More Ransom' Decryption Tools Prevent $108M In Ransomware Payments

'On the three-year anniversary of the No More Ransom project, Europol
announced today that users who downloaded and decrypted files using
free tools made available through the No More Ransom portal have
prevented ransomware gangs from making profits estimated at at least
$108 million... However, an Emsisoft spokesperson told ZDNet that the
$108 million estimate that Europol shared today is "actually a huge
underestimate. They're based on the number of successful decryptions
confirmed by telemetry -- in other words, when the tools phone home to
confirm they've done their job," Emsisoft told ZDNet... Just the free
decryption tools for the GandCrab ransomware alone offered on the No
More Ransom website have prevented ransom payments of nearly $50
million alone, Europol said.

The project, which launched in July 2016, now hosts 82 tools that can
be used to decrypt 109 different types of ransomware. Most of these
have been created and shared by antivirus makers like Emsisoft, Avast,
and Bitdefender, and others; national police agencies; CERTs; or
online communities like Bleeping Computer. By far the most proficient
member has been antivirus maker Emsisoft, which released 32 decryption
tools for 32 different ransomware strains... All in all, Europol said
that more than three million users visited the site and more than
200,000 users downloaded tools from the No More Ransom portal since
its launch.

One Emisoft researcher said they were "pretty proud" of their
decryptor for MegaLocker, "as not only did it help thousands of
victims, but it really riled up the malware author."'

-- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/28/2358258

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
_______________________________________________
wlug mailing list | [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug