'.Gif File Extension' Ransomware

The '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware is a Trojan from the Globe Imposter Ransomware family, a group of file-locking threats that pretend that they're variants of the Globe Ransomware. The '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware infections can stop you from opening different formats of media, such as documents, and may erase any local and unprotected backups. The victims of these attacks should disregard any ransoming instructions, use their anti-malware products for uninstalling the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware, and recover the data by free means.

When All Your Files Turn into 'Pictures'

The family of Trojans that's most identifiable by pretending to be another one has another entry for this year: the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware. This fake version of the Globe Ransomware uses Notepad files instead of the previous HTML and HTA formats that the Globe Imposter Ransomware employs normally. No malfunctions are notable in its cryptography, and any the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware infection has a theoretical capacity for blocking your recreational and work-related media indefinitely.

The different themes in use by Trojans of collective are flexible, as past examples show via the Kimchenyn Ransomware, the Panda Ransomware, and the SuddenTax Ransomware. However, like all of them, the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware uses Windows Registry exploits for launching itself automatically and includes a payload focusing on the harmful and non-consensual encryption of data. The '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware may target files including JPG images, DOC or PDF documents, XLS spreadsheets, and other media on the user's drives.

Malware experts are naming the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware after its primary, distinguishing feature: the new extension it appends to the filenames of everything that it locks. This 'GIF' extension is an unusual choice for the threat actor; normally, file-locking Trojans avoid using any 'locked file' tags that are already in use by other, widely-known formats. Despite any name alterations, any files that the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware blocks require a full decryption process before it opens again in any appropriate programs, and remains unusable until that time.

Reasons to Avoid Ransoming Your GIFs

The '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware's threat actors are asking for just over two hundred USD in Bitcoins as the ransom for their decryption application. While they may or may not provide such a service, malware experts do remind any readers that many members of the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware's family, including all variants before the Globe Imposter 2.0, are decryptable with free software easily. Users can contact members of the cyber-security sector for any help they may need with identifying the infection definitively and determining an appropriate response. Cryptocurrencies don't use traditional refund models that protect the buyer, and paying for unlocking the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware's files may give you nothing in exchange.

Malware experts are seeing families such as the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware's group using one of a handful of infection techniques:

• Corporate and government networks sometimes suffer attacks via e-mail attachments or the brute-forcing of their logins.
• Casual PC users, most often, expose themselves via visiting corrupted websites harboring the Nebula Exploit Kit, and similar threats or using file-sharing networks, ones focusing on illicit downloads like cheat engines especially.

Since the Globe Imposter Ransomware's many members have limited identity-concealing features, most anti-malware programs should find limited issues with deleting the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware before it can start to lock any files.

The data-sabotaging process that the '.Gif File Extension' Ransomware uses is something that can occur quickly and in an asymptomatic way. If your files are worth anything, they're worth backing up and protecting with a good security program.