“No More Ransom”, together to fight digital blackmail

Italy is among the most active countries in the fight against digital blackmail, confirmed by participation in the "No More Ransom"

The No More Ransom initiative, just three months after its launch, has allowed more than 2.500 people to decrypt their data without having to pay hackers thanks to the use of ad hoc tools on the site - such as CoinVault, WildFire and Shade - with a total saving that exceeds one million dollars.

The project continues to attract new adherents. Italy's Postal and Communications Police Service is leading the charge against ransomware. But keeping it company are the Netherlands first, followed by authorities and private sectors from 12 other countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Colombia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Other law enforcement agencies and private organizations will also join the program in the coming months, and their cooperation will significantly increase the number of freely available decryption tools.

All united against digital blackmail

(Taken from YouTube)

Ransomware - for those unfamiliar with the term - is full-blown extortion... only in a digital version. The operation aims to take computers hostage through the fraudulent installation of viruses, then "free" it upon payment of a ransom, usually, in Bitcoin. This isn't breaking news, but thankfully, people are going on the counterattack. The "No More Ransom" project, in fact, was launched last July 25 by the Dutch National Police, Europol, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab, marking the beginning of a collaboration between law enforcement and the private sector. This laudable initiative is completely free of charge and is also supported by Eurojust and the European Commission, demonstrating that the EU is concerned about the increase in ransomware threats.

Information and many weapons to defend yourself

The purpose of the www.nomoreransome.org portal is, therefore, to provide a reliable reference point and a useful resource for victims of hacker attacks. Users will find on the platform not only information about what ransomware is, how it works and, above all, how to protect themselves from attacks, but also a sort of "heavy artillery" to launch a counterattack. It is, in fact, a series of tools developed specifically to get rid of this vile blackmail that holds hostage data, often of inestimable value. Since July, the project has made available to victims - in addition to the already mentioned CoinVault, WildFire and Shade - WildFireDecryptor, as well as some updates to RannohDecryptor (equipped with a decryptor for MarsJoke ransomware, i.e. Polyglot) and RakhiDecryptor (updated with Chimera).

Unity is strength

"The fight against ransomware achieves greater success when authorities and the private sector work together," explains Morten Lehn, General Manager Italy at Kaspersky Lab. "Despite the growing challenges," continues Morten Lehn, "the initiative has shown that a coordinated approach between European law enforcement agencies, including all relevant partners, can bring significant successes in combating this type of crime by focusing on the fundamental steps of prevention and awareness of the problem. I am confident that the online portal will continue to improve in the months ahead, and we want to encourage all law enforcement agencies to join us. "

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