Cryptowall Ransomware Virus

What is Cryptowall Virus?

Cryptowall is a ransomware virus that uses a Trojan horse to encrypt files on a compromised computer and requires users to pay a ransom to receive a decryption key. Cryptowall is typically launched via a spam email, a malicious online ad, a compromised website or another form of malware. When executed, Cryptowall encrypts any files on the drive with specific extensions and leaves files with instructions for how to pay the ransom and acquire the decryption key.

Recovering from a Cryptowall ransomware attack

When a Cryptowall attack occurs despite your best security efforts, Mimecast helps to lessen the impact of the attack by providing access to files through an off-site archive. Mimecast Enterprise Information Archiving is a multipurpose archive in the cloud were multiple copies of email, files and IM conversations can be saved for search, retrieval and recovery. By enabling administrators to roll back data to a point prior to the Cryptowall attack, Mimecast speeds recovery and dramatically reduces the negative impacts of an attack.

Learn more about defending against Cryptowall with Mimecast.

How to Defend Against Cryptowall

To defend against Cryptowall, you need anti ransomware technology that can automatically prevent users from clicking on links that may download malware or opening attachments that may contain malicious code. And because it may be impossible to block ransomware and other advanced threats 100% of the time, you also need solutions that can lessen the damage Cryptowall and other sophisticated attacks can cause.

That's where Mimecast can help.

Prevent a Cryptowall attack with Mimecast

Mimecast is a cloud-based subscription service that delivers powerful solutions for email security, archiving and continuity. As an all-in-one solution, Mimecast reduces the cost and complexity of managing business email, and eliminates the need to deploy multiple point solutions from various vendors.

Mimecast security services defend against a wide range of threats – from viruses, malware and spam to advanced threats like impersonation fraud, spoof email attacks, phishing, spear-on phishing will and will ransomware.

Mimecast Cryptowall Detection

To block Cryptowall attacks, Mimecast scans URLs and attachments in all incoming and archived email on every click, rewriting URLs and preventing potentially dangerous websites from loading. To avoid ransomware x that originated attachments, Mimecast scans the code in attachments for potential threats based on sophisticated intelligence. Potentially malicious attachments may be preemptively sandboxed or automatically be written to a safe format for immediate access by users. Mimecast also offers dynamic user awareness tools that help employees recognize potential threats more successfully.

Why you should never pay ransom for Cryptowall

Paying ransom for Cryptowall, or any other ransomware is not advisable. Paying ransom does not guarantee any cyber criminal will restore access to your data, and it may embolden them to attack your organization again.

Instead, report the attack to law enforcement and partner with cybersecurity experts to see how you may be able to recover your data and protect your organization from future ransomware attacks.