{"id":54606,"date":"2016-09-27T22:37:17","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T22:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=54606"},"modified":"2016-09-27T22:37:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T22:37:17","slug":"old-ransomware-virlock-spreads-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/old-ransomware-virlock-spreads-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Ransomware, Virlock, Spreads Through The Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Two year old ransomware, Virlock, has taken on a new approach to infect more users than ever&#8230;<!--more--><\/h3>\n<p>As technology advances, so do the cyber criminals.\u00a0 Virlock, a form of ransomware, was originally founded two years ago.\u00a0 However, recent reports by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/virlock-ransomware-can-now-use-the-cloud-to-spread-say-researchers\/\">ZDNet <\/a>have confirmed Virlock\u00a0using the cloud to spread the ransomware to more users than ever.\u00a0 This methodology of spreading ransomware is called &#8220;fanning out&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>To explain exactly how this works, imagine your department or family sharing files through a\u00a0cloud-based storage option such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.\u00a0 If one person becomes infected with Virlock, it encrypts all of their files, including the files that are shared.\u00a0 Then, once another individual opens those shared files, the ransomware is installed on their PC.\u00a0 This leads to their personal files becoming encrypted.<\/p>\n<h3>Avoiding Infection<\/h3>\n<p>As we all know, ransomware has become an epidemic.\u00a0 New ransomware variants and attack methods are being created every single day.\u00a0 How do we win this ransomware war?\u00a0 First, PC users need to be educated.\u00a0 This education need to be focused on red flags to look for in potential tech support and phishing\u00a0scams and\u00a0current cyber security threats.\u00a0 Second, users need to ensure all of their endpoints are updated.\u00a0 This includes applications and operating systems.\u00a0 Lastly, users need to implement a security software solution that includes application whitelisting technology.\u00a0 By using application whitelisting, only safe programs are able to execute, all others are blocked; which significantly decreases the risk of successful malware attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two year old ransomware, Virlock, has taken on a new approach to infect more users than ever&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":53960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4949,5000],"tags":[4363],"class_list":["post-54606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ransomware","category-ransomwarewar","tag-ransomware"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Old Ransomware, Virlock, Spreads Through The Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two year old ransomware straign, Virlock, has released a new variant that is using a &quot;fanning out&quot; method in cloud-based storage...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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