CryptoWall is the latest strain of ransomware to rise to prominence, extorting more than $1 million from victims and wreaking havoc on thousands of police departments, businesses, and individuals across the globe.
On the surface, CryptoWall is similar to its better-known predecessor Cryptolocker, another strain of crypto-ransomware. But there are many differences.
Victims are typically infected with CryptoWall by opening a malicious email attachment, though drive-by-downloads on websites are also possible. The email attachments are often zip files that contain executables disguised as PDFs.
Once infected, CryptoWall scans all mapped drives and encrypts important files. That’s an important distinction: CryptoWall will scan your local drives, but also any server mapped drives, such as an S: or N: drive. [Read more…] about CryptoWall 2.0: Ransomware Is Alive And Well