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Update: CryptoDefense rebranded to CryptoWall

After the fortune they reaped with CryptoDefense, not only did the crooks buy more computers from a botnet. They also rebranded it to 'CryptoWall' and made considerable changes to its website:

+ Multilanguage Support
+ Slight color changes in their website. Now it looks nicer, I confess.
+ Support (You can message them in case you need help) 

- Their English sucks, so I haven't noticed any improvement in this area.

* Ransomware notes are now named as:
  • DECRYPT_INSTRUCTION.txt
  • DECRYPT_INSTRUCTION.html
  • DECRYPT_INSTRUCTION.url
What does it mean to 'buy computers'?

 Most computers that were hit by this nasty ransomware had been previosuly infected by a botnet. A botnet is a network of infected computers that can be spied and controlled by their masters (those who own the botnet network). 

These computer programs are usually used to gather users' credentials to home-banking and to perform DDoS attacks on websites, etc. (Yes, you can pay these crooks to bring down your competition's website).

One of their businesses consists of selling a certain number of infected computers so that the buyers can install whatever they want in them. In this case: CryptoDefense/CryptoWall. It's not a big issue for them to sell these computers because most of them are not used for homebanking anyway. So, they remain rather useless. Now, thanks to ransomware, they no longer have to wait until they get a bank account. They just encrypt their files and get paid via Bitcoins.

 Is there a chance to get my files without payment?

 Maybe, I can't tell. The reason why the first 'lucky' victims that were hit by the earliest version of CryptoDefense could recover their files was because its earliest version had a faulty implementation of CryptoAPI (needed to encrypt your files). 

If someone gets access to their hidden servers that provide the decryption tool and verifies the payments, all keys might be released.

 Will they go to jail?

 I very much hope so. CryptoLocker author has been identified and charges were pushed against him. CryptoLocker is way smarter than this Kiddo ransomware and the author still got caught. So, let's just be patient.

Is this information useful to you? Write me an email or consider a small donation. Any amount will be greatly appreciated!

 If you have the virus samples, you can send them. (Place them inside a .zip / .rar file) and use 'infected' as password.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 16, 2014 at 9:11 AM

    i have a question:
    cryptowall :Keys pair stored on disk!???

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 10, 2014 at 11:30 AM

    These guys will fix your problem if you donate, what a coincidence! After I donated, they quickly gave me all I needed to get all my files back

    ReplyDelete

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