Chalk one up for the good guys. Anti-virus maker Kaspersky has released an fix for those suffering from the CoinVault ransomware, a piece of software that encrypts your private files and decrypts them when you pay a certain amount of bitcoin to a random wallet. It’s a horrible piece of malware.
Luckily the creators didn’t quite lock down their system properly and there is now plenty of data on how it works as well as anti-virus signatures that can be used to catch it before it attacks. Most importantly, however, the software has been cracked.
To decrypt your files you simply need to send the bitcoin wallet associated with with the ransomware to NoRansom.Kaspersky.com and you’ll get your files back. Easy as that.
Again, ransomware sucks and the people who make it are awful. Also, there are three simple rules to surviving such an attack: first, back up your computer. Then you need to back up your computer. Finally, you really have to back up your computer.