Bitdefender has updated its Avaddon decryption tool, which it launched in February. The tool can decrypt data that was encrypted in the course of ransomware attacks with the Avaddon family.
After the well-known blackmail group had ceased its activities, the victims, who had refused to pay a ransom of up to six figures, can now access their data again. The decryptor can be downloaded for free from Bitdefender. There is also a short guide to the tool.
avaddon-Decryptor and instructions are available
The hackers behind the Avaddon ransomware family presumably operated from the countries of the former Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS - the countries of the former Soviet Union without the Baltic republics and without Ukraine). Active since 2019, the group's offering has increasingly developed into a full-fledged Ransomware as a Service (RaaS). The operators encrypted and exfiltrated valuable information. They also threatened victims who did not want to pay the ransom to put the data online or to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against them.
For a new ransomware defense of the future
The end of the activities of a group as prominent as Avaddon is good news, but its effect will not last long. The competition among RaaS providers (Ransomware-as-a-Service) is very tough and other providers will quickly fill the vacancy that has arisen. As long as the blackmailers have not been arrested, they will be active again after a few months under a new banner. Government initiatives such as the US Executive Order for better cybersecurity or global initiatives for joint law enforcement as well as cooperation between authorities and the private sector are therefore still on the agenda.
The download link for the Bitdefender decryptor tool can be found in the instructions, which can be downloaded from NoMoreRansom.org.
More at NoMoreRansom.com
About Bitdefender Bitdefender is a leading global provider of cybersecurity solutions and antivirus software, protecting over 500 million systems in more than 150 countries. Since it was founded in 2001, the company's innovations have consistently ensured excellent security products and intelligent protection for devices, networks and cloud services for private customers and companies. As the supplier of choice, Bitdefender technology is found in 38 percent of security solutions deployed around the world and is trusted and recognized by industry experts, manufacturers and customers alike. www.bitdefender.de