LockerGoga: Ransomware victims can now decrypt data for free

Victims of the LockerGoga ransomware trojan can breathe a sigh of relief: thanks to a decryption tool released by Bitdefender, they can now decrypt their data without paying a ransom.

The ransomware LockerGoga attacked files of all kinds under Windows and encrypts them. Ransoms were demanded for the necessary decryption of the data. The group behind this blackmail Trojan was arrested in late 2021.

Now the victims can finally breathe a sigh of relief: developers at the anti-virus software manufacturer Bitdefender have released a free decryption tool for the data captured by LockerGoga. Europol and the Zurich cantonal police are said to have been involved in the development of the tool.

Decrypt affected data

The decryption tool “BDLockerGogaDecryptTool” is available for download on the Bitdefender website. 

After starting the application, we recommend activating the “Backup files” option. In this way, the encrypted data is secured in case something goes wrong. For the decryption process itself, the computer must be connected to the Internet and the ransom message must be in the selected path. In addition to the entire hard drive, the BDLockerGogaDecryptTool can also search for encrypted files with the “.locked” extension in selected folders. Alternatively, the decryption tool can also be run from the command line.

Source: heise.de