{"id":23361,"date":"2014-08-06T20:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T01:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ntegrait.com\/500000-victims-of-cryptolocker-can-finally-recover-files-without-paying-a-ransom\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T11:42:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T11:42:29","slug":"500000-victims-of-cryptolocker-can-finally-recover-files-without-paying-a-ransom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ntegrait.com\/500000-victims-of-cryptolocker-can-finally-recover-files-without-paying-a-ransom\/","title":{"rendered":"500,000 Victims of Cryptolocker Can Finally Recover Files Without Paying a Ransom"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 2013 antivirus companies discovered a new ransomware known as Cryptolocker. Cryptolocker is a ransomware trojan that targets computers running Mirosoft Windows. Ransomware is the type of malware that restricts access to the computer system it infects, and demands a ransom paid to the creator to remove the restriction.<\/p>\n
Cryptolocker encrypted files on Windows computers, and demanded a $400 fee before receiving a private key to the lost scrambled files. They also demanded that the fee be paid in 72 hours or all their files would be destroyed forever. However, recent news has been released that all 500,000 victims can now recover their encrypted files by the malware without paying a ransom.<\/p>\n
This is now possible because security experts created an online portal where victims can get the key for free. The portal was created after security researchers gained access to a copy of Cryptolocker\u2019s database of victims. Access was made in May, when law enforcement agencies and security companies seized a worldwide network of hijacked computers that were being used to spread Cryptolocker and other malware. The security officials were then able to grab the victim database as it was being sent.<\/p>\n