No More Ransom, the European Union law enforcement agency’s anti-ransomware project has been able to help over 1.5 million victims to successfully restore their files, without paying ransom to attackers.
The initiative was launched in 2016 by Europol, the Dutch National Police (Politie), and a handful of cybersecurity and IT companies with only four decryption devices. Although the initiative was able to prevent an estimated US$1.5 billion from falling into the hands of cyber criminals, it has also evolved into an offering of 136 free decryption tools for 165 variants of ransomware, including GrandCrab, REvil, Maze and others.
Despite the enormous success, however, the agency is not relenting in its efforts, as it acknowledges that the fight is far from over. Law enforcement agencies are working on new ways to stop attacks, including disrupting the infrastructure used by attackers.
“It’s up to us, as Europol and other law enforcement agencies, to keep evolving ourselves as well, rethink our strategies beyond No More Ransom. The No More Ransom platform is in place and hopefully it will stay in place for a long time as an answer to many of those scams,” said Marijn Schuurbiers, head of operations at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3).
Users are advised to back up their data regularly, ensure that their security software and operating systems are up-to-date, and use multi-factor authentication.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNet.
