Bitdefender Offers Free CryptoWall Vaccine

Bitdefender, the innovative antivirus software provider, is offering a new freeware utility to protect users against CryptoWall. This family of file-encrypting viruses has been around for less than 5 months and has already extorted more than $1 million and inflicted inestimable damage on users who refuse to pay ransom.

File-encrypting ransomware has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges in 2014. Because of the industry-grade asymmetric encryption algorithm, there is no reasonable way to recover the files without the private decryption key.

“Ransomware is not only technologically challenging for both users and antimalware companies, but its success in extorting money is inspiring other cybercriminal groups to enter the ransomware business,” said Bitdefender Chief Security Strategist Cătălin Coșoi. ‚”The tool we are releasing today blocks the encryption process even if the computer becomes infected.”

CryptoWall Immunizer can be downloaded for free from the Bitdefender Labs product page.