Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware

The Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware is a minor variant of the Crysis Ransomware family, specifically, the Dharma Ransomware sub-division. Infections can cause your files to be unusable due to being encrypted automatically, along with other symptoms related to the threat actor's solicitation of ransom money. Have an anti-malware product delete the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware for removing any further risk of file damage before using free decryption solutions or backups for restoring your media.

A Meme-Heavy Ransomware Hireling

The next threat actor using a derivative of the Crysis Ransomware's Ransomware-as-a-Service business is leaning heavily on Internet memes for his ransoming negotiations, although the same isn't applicable to the Trojan's distribution model. Some samples of the newest version of the Dharma Ransomware, a prominent sub-group of the Crysis Ransomware family, are displaying new e-mail addresses and cosmetic symptoms while hiding themselves as parts of Windows. This variant, the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware, is using encryption attacks for locking media, just like ancestors such as the icrypt@cock.li Ransomware and the older 'wisperado@india.com' Ransomware or the webmafia@asia.com Ransomware.

Malware researchers are rating it likely that the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware is using manually-based infection techniques, such as brute-force attacks against server admin accounts, which let the threat actor install and run the program after breaking through the login credentials. Other cases could use spam e-mails or, in less traditional cases, browser-driven exploit kits or even torrents. Like all Trojans of its family, once the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware's running, it uses a silent encryption routine for locking media throughout the PC.

The Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware may 'lock' content such as Word or Adobe PDF documents, spreadsheets, archives, pictures, archives and databases, and always add its e-mail address (seen in its name) and a second extension onto each filename. The '.waifu' extension that it adds is the first case of such a string in use for its family, although other file-locker Trojans make similar references to online memes. Since the change is cosmetic, malware experts recommend against removing it; doing so will not unlock your files and may make identifying which content is encrypted more difficult than is necessary.

Clearing a Little Darkness Enshrouding Your Files

The Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware's family is one of several that targets and erases the default Windows backups of the PC, as a preemptive countermeasure against the victims' restoring their files by themselves. Despite this issue, malware researchers recommend against paying any ransom without, at least, testing the free decryption solutions that are compatible with the Dharma Ransomware. Modern versions of the Dharma Ransomware, like the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware, may or may not be compatible with such solutions, but users always can preserve their files with remote, secure backups.

File-locker Trojans from the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware's family are Windows-dependent but have few other requirements for running, and consist of executables of under a single megabyte in size. Administrators should monitor their login credentials for common vulnerabilities that could lead to the installation of harmful software regularly after a remote attacker brute-forces their way into the network. Most anti-malware programs are deleting the Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware after identifying it without issues, despite it using file information disguising it as a part of Windows, such as the Shell Experience Host.

The Darknes@420blaze.it Ransomware owes its existence to Ransomware-as-a-Service's being a profitable and easy-to-get-into criminal enterprise. PC owners should try to make those profits less reliable for new 'inventors' in the market by backing their files up and using traditionally-secure password management.