No More Ransom Helped Over 1.5 Million People Decrypt Their Devices

No More Ransom is an initiative to help ransomware victims (photo: Kaspersky)

JAKARTA - No More Ransom, an initiative launched to help ransomware victims decrypt their files, celebrated its sixth anniversary on 26 July.

Since its launch, it has grown from four partners to 188 and has contributed 136 decryption tools spanning 165 ransomware families. Thus, it has helped more than 1.5 million people in the world in decrypting their devices with the project available in 37 languages.

In Southeast Asia (SEA), the project has helped nearly 30,000 ransomware victims from July last year to the end of June 2022. Specifically in Indonesia, 7685 users affected by ransomware have been helped and a total of 685 Kaspersky decryption tools have been downloaded from July 2021 to June 2022.

The highest number of users using free ransomware decryption tools are from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In terms of the number of downloaded Kaspersky decryption tools, Vietnam recorded the most downloads in Southeast Asia followed by Indonesia and Thailand.

Ransomware encrypts valuable information stored on victims' computers by infecting them using suspicious and unsafe websites, software downloads, malicious attachments, and through remote desk protocol (RDP) attacks to exploit vulnerable servers on the internet.

The cybercriminal then demands a ransom from the victim, promising to return their encrypted data in return. This type of malware has been a cybersecurity concern for years.

“Ransomware is an effective way to get money from victims and remains one of the biggest cybersecurity concerns. In just the first three months of 2022, more than 74.000 unique users were found to have been exposed to this type of threat and all of these attacks were successfully detected,” said Jornt van der Weil, security researcher at Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT).

To help people and organizations regain access to valuable information, the National High Tech Crime Unit of the Dutch National Police, the European Center for Cybercrime, Kaspersky and other partners jointly created the initiative. No More Ransom in 2016.

On the official website, participants can publish decryption tools, guidelines, and instructions on how to report cybercrimes wherever they occur. These tools and materials have helped victims of 165 ransomware families get their data back without any payment.

In addition to a decryption tool, the project also aims to spread information about how ransomware works and what actions can be taken to prevent infection.

Kaspersky is one of the founding partners contributing to 9 decryption tools, which help retrieve data encrypted by 38 ransomware families. Since 2018, this tool has been downloaded 304.274 times.

“We will continue to fight ransomware with our existing and future partners,” continued Jornt van der Weil.