Cryptolocker- The Best Prevention Strategies That You Can Use

Cryptolocker is a unique ransomware with a business model based on taking money from users. It mimics the police virus that usually asks you to pay a fine before you can access your files. However, as compared to this virus, cryptolocker hijacks your files and documents and asks you pay a ransom while giving you an allowance to pay. It normally applies social engineering techniques to confuse you into installing it.

It takes advantage of the windows default behavior to disguise the real extension of the bad file. The moment you run it, the malware goes memory resident on your computer and does the following.

· It starts two processes of itself to protect the main process from being terminated.

· It adds a key making it run whenever you start the computer.

· It saves itself in your user’s profile.

The rise of this software is a genuine threat that can easily lead to the infection of your machine. If you cannot manage it, your machine is likely to get infected and lose some data. Since most vendors are not able to protect your computer from this virus, you need to be very careful. Here are some prevention strategies that you can use

Manage network traffic

If you manage your network traffic, you can control this malware. Normally, flat networks are more likely to be affected by this virus. You need to properly zone your network so that you can only see and interact with the areas of the network that you should be interacting with.

Use layers

Although this is often said, it’s surprising most people often ignore this approach of protecting their computers thinking that antivirus and firewall are enough to secure your environment. Unfortunately, this is not the case especially when cryptolocker strikes. This is why you need to place a lot of emphasis on the significance of having layers of protection. This should be part of your protection method.

Uses restricted interfaces

If you use restricted application, you will be better placed to prevent cryptolocker. For instance, if your browser is blocked through restricted interface, you tend to browse on your own machine and not through the corporations connection. This may help you limit the exposure.

Use HIPS and IPS

It’s advisable that you use advanced HIPS and IPS. This will help you prevent cryptolocker since interfaces that produce unusual traffic can easily be detected. This should also detect and prevent any traffic that is the norm.

Be vigilant

You also need to be watchful and promote security awareness. You will realize that many users are not even aware of this malware and the potential threats that it has on machines. This will help you know the latest threats and attacks

Be careful about strange emails

You should also be wary of any emails that you do not know the senders and disable any hidden file extensions. This will help you recognize any attack. However, if your machine is infected but lack backup files do not pay any ransom. This will help limit the spread of this bad ransomware.