does avast protect against. crypto locker

Some variants are more harmful than others, but they all have one thing in common: ransomware by definition requires a demand of payment. Ransomware comes in all shapes and sizes.

Ransomware and viruses can both be removed with an antivirus - but if your files are encrypted, it’s unlikely you’ll ever get them back. Ransomware scrambles your files to render them unusable, then demands you pay up.

Viruses infect your files or software, and have the ability to self-replicate. Hospitals, governments, and large corporations have been hit with large-scale ransomware attacks that forced them to choose between paying thousands of dollars in ransom to cybercriminals or absorbing millions in recovery costs.īut is ransomware a virus? No, it’s a different type of malicious software. In recent years, ransomware has grown astronomically. Luckily, experts came up with tools to remove the malware and decrypt the infected files. Finally, it encrypted all system files and asked users to pay $189 to undo the damage. The malware didn’t run immediately, but instead waited until victims booted their PCs 90 times. The first recorded ransomware attack occurred in 1989, when evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp infected floppy disks with the AIDS Trojan and distributed them to fellow researchers.

Does avast protect against. crypto locker