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CIRCL joins Europol in the fight against ransomware

By becoming Supporting partner of “No More Ransom"

CIRCL is proud to announce its recent appointment as Supporting partner of the "No More Ransom" project, in the specific field titled: Fight against ransomware in large scale.

No More Ransom was launched in July 2016 by the Dutch National Police, Europol, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab, introducing a new level of cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector to fight ransomware together. The aim of such a project is to provide users with information on what ransomware is and how to protect themselves and, equally important, victims can find tools to help them decrypt their blocked devices for free.

A number of law enforcement and IT sec companies, either public or private, have joined this initiative to help providing counter measures to prevent infections and educating the users.

Both the private sector and law enforcement are stepping up efforts to fight these cybercriminals who are using ransomware to deprive their victims of large amounts of money. However, awareness remains key to preventing ransomware from being successful. Some simple protection measures can prevent a lot of harm: always have a back-up system in place so a ransomware infection can’t destroy your personal data forever; use robust antivirus software to protect your system from ransomware; keep all the software on your computer up to date and literally trust no-one, as any account can be compromised.

Ransomware has been a persistent crimeware threat in 2016 with the ongoing activity and dynamism of the “Locky” threat and even the emergence of the first cryptoransomware for mac.

If you need more help unlocking your digital life without paying your attackers or learn, more about available tools and advice, browse through the project: https://www.nomoreransom.org