'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware

The 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware is a member of the Dharma Ransomware family, a group of Trojans that encrypt your files to stop you from opening them and create extortion messages asking you to pay for their unlocking. Free decryption solutions for this family are inconsistent, and victims should keep backups to reduce the potential harm of an infection. If they're active, most anti-malware products also should be able to remove the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware without its encrypting any content.

The Web Mafia Have Your Files

While its family is smaller than, for example, the collection of Trojans emerging from the CrySiS ransomware builder, the Dharma Ransomware is continuing to see use by new threat actors into the new year. Recent versions of these Trojans often avoid previously-working decryption solutions, causing victims to have fewer options for data recovery that don't involve paying extortionists. The 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware is only the latest of these threats.

Despite the e-mail address of choice, this Trojan has no relationship with the MafiaWare Ransomware, which conducts similar attacks. The 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware most likely is installing itself through spam e-mails or other attacks against vulnerable entities in the business sector, allowing its threat actors to compromise large amounts of financially valuable data. The files that the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware encrypts and locks also take on new extensions consisting of '.wallet' and a set of brackets containing the threat actor's e-mail address.

Victims are presumed to have no data recovery methods other than contacting the associated e-mail address and paying the threat actor a ransom, which, ordinarily, takes place via Bitcoins. Although the Dharma Ransomware family is vulnerable to free decryption software, new versions like the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware often include modifications that further obfuscate the encryption routine and prevent you from recovering your files without paying.

The 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware infections also may include other symptoms, such as text messages created for promoting the ransoming 'service' or hijacking your desktop's background image.

A Decryption Offer You can Refuse

When such software is available, malware experts do encourage running samples of encrypted files through free decryptors to see if decryption without paying is possible. However, for threats like the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware, decryption sometimes is difficult or impossible. PC users both in and out of the business sector who have irreplaceable files should back them up to non-local drives to keep them from being potentially damaged permanently. Although only a handful of attacks are verifiable, so far, the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware is already on record as being capable of erasing local backups.

For those without the interest or ability to backup all files safely, compromise prevention is the other strategy malware experts can endorse without reservation. Use anti-malware tools to scan questionable e-mail attachments for potential Trojan droppers and disable Web-browsing features that could put your PC at risk (such as Flash or JavaScript). Numerous brands of anti-malware products detect this threat successfully and should be able to remove the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware before any file-encrypting attacks.

Even re-tooled versions of old threats can present brand-new dangers to a victim, as the 'webmafia@asia.com' Ransomware shows. What once was a working, free decryption solution yesterday may not always be one today.