CryptoLocker and CryptoWall Update

We wanted to provide another update since our last communication regarding the CryptoLocker and CryptoWall malware infection.

This strand of malware is constantly evolving and although the servers have been shut down that handled the encryption for CryptoLocker and the encryption keys released, the latest variants are still causing extensive damage.

Internally, we have developed and successfully tested a preventative measure using our managed services tools to protect against the latest CryptoWall infection. If you have an AssistIT or SimplifyIT agreement, the new protection method has been deployed to your network.

If you do not have either of these agreements, we can push this preventative measure out through group policy to your network. This is a manual process and the labor to do so would be approximately 2 – 3 hours to complete. The method we developed will not save the infected workstation from being encrypted, but in most cases it will prevent the infection from spreading to your fileserver and other shared data repositories where the real damage is done.

Please note that the current methods we have developed to protect your network are only effective against the current variant of this malware infection. We have recently seen evidence of a new strain of this type of malware and it appears to be infecting in a different way than previous versions. As this malware continues to change, we will continue to work on developing new ways for protection. As we have communicated previously, the most effective protection against this malware and all malicious software is user education.

If you would like our help with educating your users or you would like learn more about pushing out a group policy to your network (for non AssistIT or SimplifyIT clients), or have any other questions, please contact your Account Manager at 203-744-2274: