Cybersecurity researchers and ransomware removal operators discover new cryptovirological strains on a daily basis. Sometimes, they also stumble upon a new variant of existing ransomware. This has also happened in the latest cryptovirological discovery, where experts discovered a new variant of the MMM Reborn ransomware. It is important to mention here that MMM ransomware has entered the scene nearly after a year. For that matter, ransomware removal experts have named the newly discovered strain MMM Reborn.
Unreasonable Ransom Demand
It seems like the operators of MMM Reborn are not aware of how to devise an extortion demand for ransomware removal. According to the ransom note that appears on the desktop in HTML file format after the completion of encryption, the operators demand 222 Bitcoins to provide the decrypter for the recovery of the encrypted files. As per today’s exchange rates, this amount equals to staggering $0.8 million dollars. This is not a reasonable ransom amount by any means, particularly if the victims are individual users or SME enterprises.
MMM Reborn Might be in Developmental Phase
Ransomware experts also believe that MMM Reborn might still be in its developmental phase. The experts have come to this conclusion due to two reasons
- The unreasonable ransom amount suggests that the operators are still testing the infection.
- The volume of the delivered MMM Reborn payload on the affected device is quite low.
The ransom note also has very limited details. For instance, it doesn’t provide any deadline. Moreover, no Bitcoin wallet address is given for the ransom transaction. The attackers also don’t offer free decryption of a file or two to give a proof that they have a complete solution.
Experts are still trying to find out the distribution method used by MMM Reborn Operators. Nonetheless, it has been found out that the attackers are using RSA 2048 encryption module to lock down the files on the targeted devices.
