Ransomware and browser hijackers — a couple of this year’s most active cyber infections. Over the year 2016, these parasites have been developing, changing their form, behavior, and computer infiltration strategies, keeping virus analysts and security software developers constantly on their toes. During this period, multiple malicious infections have surfaced and died out, but there are a few of the most aggressive parasites which creators are not even planning on stepping back. One of these viruses is Thor ransomware. This cyber infection is known to be deriving from the notorious Locky virus family. It stands beside other malicious virus versions, including .Shit file extension virus, Perl ransomware, and ODIN virus. It is a complex infection that travels around with the help of malicious spam campaigns, uses obfuscated files to enter the computer and is capable of encrypting over 400 types of files. Cyber security experts, including eSolutions team, are actively researching the virus and working towards its decontamination. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to curb such a well-developed malware like Thor, so, for the time being, the users are advised to fend for themselves and protect their data by making regular system backups.
The browser hijacker frontier is no less dangerous. Though these types of viruses are much more unstable and easier to curb, there are parasites like Web-start.org that are raging on the web regardless of the attempts to stop them. This virus is based on the obscure Plus Network and is a trustworthy-looking imitation of a regular Internet search engine. If you ever find Web-start.org set as your homepage or default search engine — do NOT use it! Otherwise, the fake search results it provides may expose you to malicious websites where your computer might be infected by much more serious malware infections. It will take some time for the experts to learn how to stop this infection, but we should not forget that responsibility for the undesirable success of such programs falls on the shoulders of the users as well. We should pay more attention to our computer security and our behavior online and, maybe, problems like browser hijackers will soon become a thing of the past.