Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware is a combination ransomware vaccine that allows users to immunize their computers and block any file encryption attempts from Cryptowall, Cryptolocker, CTB-Locker, Locky, and the TeslaCrypt families of ransomware.

It uses very little memory, about 8 MB.

Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware is updated whenever possible to remain effective but might not block all known variants due to the speed that hackers change their software but it should protect you from most.

The latest update includes the Petya ransomware which is another stubborn tool used by cyber-criminals that encrypts the NTFS Master File Table, the Bitdefender research team has found that it sports similarities with other notorious ransomware families, such as Chimera and Rokku. But in this case, Bitdefender found that a portion of its malicious code was flawed and exploited that fact by reverse engineering it. This provided a way to develop a vaccine to combat the effects of infection. This includes a decryption key should you become infected which will allow for immediate decryption of your files.

Our malware team has fought with this difficult infection and there is no easy way to remove it. For more on that, see How to Avoid and Deal With Cryptowall and Ransomware.