Ransomware has struck hard, and its threat is spreading quickly. Targeted attacks remain a priority for developers, but the average user is becoming an increasingly tempting target. Traditional security solutions are powerless against ransomware, which pushes us to consider dedicated tools. One of the newest is RansomFree, created by the company Cybereason.
As we always say in these cases, the best way to avoid ransomware infections is prevention. The most "successful" variants have concentrated their attacks on outdated platforms in government agencies, hospitals, television networks, and police stations. Because of the sensitivity of their data and the complete absence of backups, these places are more likely to comply with the attacker's demands, but at the same time, it is unlikely that ransomware can hit them a second time. That causes some malicious developers to turn to normal users. The probability that an individual victim will pay is lower, but at the same time they greatly expand their field of action.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/nr1w2mrOptoThis brings us to more dedicated protection tools like RansomFree. Its detection method is based on the study of behavior of certain processes, so it does not rely on a database or digital signatures. To assist itself in detection, RansomFree generates several files that act as bait, and once it detects the process trying to encrypt that content, it interrupts its operation. The risk behind this technique is that if the ransomware is fast enough it could encrypt some files before being caught by RansomFree, but that is preferable to losing all your information.
RansomFree is completely free (we are not yet sure how it will be financed) and compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows 7 onward. Its installer is quite small, and the software gets along wonderfully with other security solutions. In fact, on the official page they explain that RansomFree does not seek to replace antivirus but to serve as a complement.
