Bitdefender is a known antivirus program that is able to secure your PC from many forms of malware. Just recently, they have released a new tool (and free of charge as well) that can prevent computers from getting infected by some of the most widespread file-encrypting ransomware applications: CTB-Locker, TeslaCrypt, and Locky.
Bitdefender Releases Tool to Protect Your Computer Against CTB-Locker, TeslaCrypt, and Locky
The new Bitdefender vaccine is circled around the same thought as the previous tool that the firm designed to assist computers in securing against CryptoWall infections. However, CryptoWall then later changed the way as to how it attacks your system which makes the previously made tool by the antivirus program practically useless, well for that specific malware anyway. Nonetheless, the same defense concept is still applicable when protecting against other ransomware categories.
There are security experts that would advise paying ransomware developers for decryption keys, however this is based on more ethical standards than what might otherwise be seen as a perceived risk that the keys won’t be delivered by the author.
As a matter of fact, there are creators of some of the known (and most successful) ransomware programs that will even go to great lengths just to deliver their promise and assistance to users to decrypt their data. They would even go as to engage in negotiations that will result in smaller costs.
Many ransomware developers would also build checks for the programs that they make to ensure that the infected systems that have its files already infected won’t be encrypted anymore. If this is not done, then some, or even a lot of the files could end up with a nested encryption by the same type of program once more.
With the new Bitdefender Tool, it works by taking advantage of these ransomware checks by making it appear as if PCs are already infected with the encryption, more specifically those of Locky, CTB-Locker, and TeslaCrypt. This would then prevent the programs from infecting the computer again.
But there is still a catch to this – the new vaccine from the Bitdefender can only fool specific types of ransomware families and is not guaranteed to work on all of them. Hence, the best solution is still to take all the common precautions to prevent the infections from taking place in the first place. The tool should only be seen as a “last ditch effort” for when other efforts don’t seem to work.