There is a new malware that might be around soon. It is dubbed as Heropoint Ransomware. This malware seems to be in the development stage and is not yet encrypting files as of this writing. For now, it just displays a lock screen.
Researchers have found out that it has an encryption routing embedded but is overloaded by another function thus forcing the ransomware to skip encryption.
The malware is designed to encrypt certain files which are the following: .txt, .png, .ico, .mp3, .exe, .jpg, .pptx, .xlsx, .htlm, and .mp4 and add a random numeric file extension.
It is not in distribution at this time due to the fact that it is currently in development. Decryption for now is uncertain since the encryption algorithm has not yet been finalized.
Prevention is always the best way avoid getting data to be compromised. We should emphasize that doing backups is a must! Avoid opening email attachments from unknown senders. Scan the attachments before opening. Windows should always be up to date. Certain programs like Adobe Flash, Java and Adobe Reader are always targeted by malware developers. With that information in mind, it should always be up to date since the newer updates and patches have fixed the vulnerabilities that previous versions have been exploited and succeptible from. Security software should also be implemented like antivirus, anti-malware and behavioral detection softwares. Last but not the least, we would like to emphasize that email, computer and website passwords should be complex enough to and never to reuse them.
