NoMoreRansom Celebrates 5 Years Fighting Crime, 6 Million Infections Restored

For the past five years, public institutions and private companies in the NoMoreRansom project have been working hard to help victims recover from the devastation of ransomware attacks. In that time, more than 170 partners from the public and private sectors have created 120 free tools and helped victims save about $1 billion in unpaid ransom. Today, we celebrate five years since we started this joint effort at fighting a global epidemic of file-encrypting malware.

Bitdefender joined the NoMoreRansom initiative in December 2016 and published 10 decryptors for 12 ransomware families. These decryptors helped victims save an estimated $100 million in unpaid ransom and helped dismantle the prolific GandCrab ransomware group.

In the five years since their creation, the tools offered by No More Ransom have helped more than 6 million people recover their files for free. This prevented criminals from earning almost a billion euros through ransomware attacks.

Prevention is key

Ransomware is a growing threat, and the cyber-criminals who wield it have diversified their extortion options. In addition to encrypting files, ransomware operators are exfiltrating information and threatening to publish it if ransom is not paid.

To stay safe, organizations and end-users are advised to regularly back up important data, run security awareness training and, most importantly, deploy and maintain security software (at home or at work) with dedicated anti-ransomware modules.

Encrypted? There is still hope

The decryptors available in the No More Ransom repository are helping more people escape the grips of ransomware operators every day. Bitdefender and partner organizations in the NoMoreRansom initiative are constantly developing new tools for the most popular ransomware families.