What’s ShrinkLocker?
ShrinkLocker is a household of ransomware that encrypts an organisation’s information and calls for a ransom fee to be able to restore entry to their information. It was first recognized by safety researchers in Might 2024, after assaults have been noticed in Mexico, Indonesia, and Jordan.
To this point, so regular. What makes it noteworthy?
The ShrinkLocker ransomware is uncommon as a result of it makes use of VBScript and Microsoft Home windows’s respectable safety device BitLocker to help with the encryption of victims’ information.
Grasp on. You imply BitLocker, the full-disk-encryption characteristic that is speculated to enhance safety by stopping anybody with out correct authentication from accessing your information?
That is the one. Ironic is not it? BitLocker, for anybody who does not know, is a characteristic constructed into Home windows that makes use of robust encryption to scramble information in your pc’s laborious drive. If you do not know the password to unlock a pc, you possibly can’t entry its information.
Which is nice in case your laptop computer is stolen by a thief…
…however not so good if ShrinkLocker is the one which’s chosen to scramble your information with Bitlocker, and never instructed you the password it used. Your pc will not be capable of inform the distinction between you and a thief – and preserve you each locked out. Anybody beginning up the pc shall be confronted with the usual BitLocker immediate for a password.
Has BitLocker been used on this approach earlier than by cybercriminals?
Sure, as an illustration in January 2021 a Belgian hospital had 100TB of its information encrypted on 40 of its servers utilizing BitLocker. The next yr a Moscow-based meat producer and distributor reportedly had its methods encrypted by a malicious attacker utilizing BitLocker.
Maybe probably the most high-profile abuse of the built-in BitLocker device has been by the Iranian cybercrime gang Storm-0270 (also referred to as Nemesis Kitten), which Microsoft claimed in September 2022 had been accountable for a number of ransomware assaults.
So, does ShrinkLocker go away a ransom notice?
No, as an alternative it adjustments the names of your entire system drives to a contact handle for the attacker.
So how do I get my palms on the password with out paying up?
Sadly, the password used to encrypt your drive has been saved on the attacker’s personal server.Â
However the excellent news is that safety agency Bitdefender has launched a free decryption device that may assist ShrinkLocker victims get better their information.
Editor’s Observe: The opinions expressed on this visitor creator article are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially mirror these of Tripwire.
