RansomFree by Cybereason: Proactive Protection Against Ransomware

[Ink]

Introducing RansomFree: a free, anti-ransomware software that detects and blocks ransomware.

• protects against 99 percent of ransomware strains
• detects and suspends ransomware activity
• warns users that their files are at risk
• protects against local, network and shared drive encryption
• catches stand-alone and file-less ransomware

Cybereason Blog: http://www.cybereason.com/blog-cybereason-ransomfree-protecting-your-data-from-being-held-hostage

Discovered through http://lifehacker.com/ransomfree-proactively-protects-your-computer-against-r-1791429681

Seen a couple threads about this in the Review and News, but nothing under Other Security for Windows.

 

[ElectricSheep]

Any good?

 

[XhenEd]

Any good?

Recent reviews say otherwise.

But it's still actively developed (i.e. many releases for fixes and improvements).

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

I have WAR lifetime & am testing AppCheck Pro (real world)
so no time or room for this one.
I have heard it is not so good, but I can't verify that as I have
not used it recently.

 

[shmu26]

it will protect your C drive from many ransomware attacks, but not all of them.

previous versions when tested were shown to fail in protecting other drives. I don't know about the new version, but people that look for protection they can really rely on are pretty lukewarm about the app.

Folks who don't mind adding another app to their arsenal might like it, though.

 

[whizkidraj]

I have WAR lifetime & am testing AppCheck Pro (real world)

what's WAR and does AppCheck Pro have lifetime license

 

[ElectricSheep]

what's WAR and does AppCheck Pro have lifetime license

WinPatrol WAR (formally WinAntiRansom)

 

[whizkidraj]

Hehe thanks, mate I remember WinPatrol from old days. So they have this new product now. Almost everywhere I'm seeing nowadays there's anti-exe(s) and now anti-ransomware(s).

 

[Cybereason]

it will protect your C drive from many ransomware attacks, but not all of them.

previous versions when tested were shown to fail in protecting other drives. I don't know about the new version, but people that look for protection they can really rely on are pretty lukewarm about the app.

Folks who don't mind adding another app to their arsenal might like it, though.

Hi, RansomFree actually does protect all fixed drives. Try out the newest version. Let me know if you don't like it

Hi everyone, RansomFree does not protect against strains that write to the MBR, but against all the others it does!
Spora, the strain that came out two weeks ago, is detected and stopped by RansomFree, without us having to release any updates.

Would love to hear any feedback or concerns you may have.

-Cybereason

 

[shmu26]

Hi, RansomFree actually does protect all fixed drives. Try out the newest version. Let me know if you don't like it

Hi there, welcome to the forum, and ברוכים הבאים if you are from the Israeli team.
It always inspires confidence in a product when a dev or company rep participates in the forum.

I do actually have RansomFree installed on my system right now, but I am not properly set up to test live samples all the way through to the encryption stage.
But I am sure that another member of the forum would be willing to give the new version a whirl.

Hi everyone, RansomFree does not protect against strains that write to the MBR, but against all the others it does!
Spora, the strain that came out two weeks ago, is detected and stopped by RansomFree, without us having to release any updates.

Would love to hear any feedback or concerns you may have.

-Cybereason

would you mind linking us to the new version? I saw it just now updated on my system.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I will try it out within a couple of days

 

[Evjl's Rain]

hi, the result of ransomfree was not good in my test. It blocked spora but actually failed because spora encrypted .jpg and .rtf but didn't change the extension. It failed against many other ransomwares too

I will post a video tomorrow. Hope you can improve the product to a next level

 

[HarborFront]

Hi, RansomFree actually does protect all fixed drives. Try out the newest version. Let me know if you don't like it

Hi everyone, RansomFree does not protect against strains that write to the MBR, but against all the others it does!
Spora, the strain that came out two weeks ago, is detected and stopped by RansomFree, without us having to release any updates.

Would love to hear any feedback or concerns you may have.

-Cybereason

Just right for me. I don't have MBR but GPT

 

[shmu26]

one good thing I can say about it is it doesn't bother you. No complications or conflicts, no system slowdowns, no alerts or nag screens.

EDIT: thanks to @Evjl's Rain for the prompt testing. I think I might uninstall it again, until they can get it right. I think they eventually will.

 

[Cybereason]

Hi everyone,
First of all, a new version is out with a few improvements and bugfixes.

Secondly and most importantly, I wrote a blog post especially for all of you
Here it is - https://www.cybereason.com/labs-real-life-scenarios-the-way-to-test-ransomware-protection/

The TL;DR is - "when testing anti-ransomware tools, real-world scenarios should be taken into consideration. Otherwise, the tests will not produce the desired results". For example, executing multiple ransomware processes at the same time, or one after the other multiple times, won't really test how well RansomFree protects against ransomware. When testing, you have to think of how the product was designed and what it was designed to stop. It wasn't designed to stop you lovely "testers", but to stop real attacks

As always, would be happy to hear your thoughts.
And as always - thank you!

 

[Deleted member 178]

Just right for me. I don't have MBR but GPT

I hope for them that when he said "MBR" is specifically mention the MBR (and not MBR & GPT) , if it is not, the apps won't deserve a glance.

To me , it is already a failure to not be able to protect the MBR.

Better use Shadow Defender then.

 

[shmu26]

Hi everyone,
First of all, a new version is out with a few improvements and bugfixes.

Secondly and most importantly, I wrote a blog post especially for all of you
Here it is - https://www.cybereason.com/labs-real-life-scenarios-the-way-to-test-ransomware-protection/

The TL;DR is - "when testing anti-ransomware tools, real-world scenarios should be taken into consideration. Otherwise, the tests will not produce the desired results". For example, executing multiple ransomware processes at the same time, or one after the other multiple times, won't really test how well RansomFree protects against ransomware. When testing, you have to think of how the product was designed and what it was designed to stop. It wasn't designed to stop you lovely "testers", but to stop real attacks

As always, would be happy to hear your thoughts.
And as always - thank you!

I would like to see testers first do the test with their usual method, to find out the potential weaknesses of this software, and then do a pin-pointed test the way the dev wants it done, to conclusively prove them right or wrong

 

[shmu26]

they pushed out a fix, for a bug that interfered with Windows shutdown.
However, the newest version forces Windows Defender to turn off.
And when it uninstalls, it forgets to delete the honeypots from the other drives.
I am not so impressed by the quality of this software, I am sorry to say.

 

[shmu26]

shmu26....have you changed your mind about this software?

I abandoned it a long time ago. I have no idea what is happening with it at this point.