A ransomware is a malware that works by encrypting your files in your PC using a very strong cipher and then demanding a ransom money from you in exchange for decrypting these files. Over past few years many such ransomware families have emerged and each time a new variant is discovered, it seems to have improvements over the older ones. While you can use various tools developed by reputed firms like Kaspersky and Bitdefender to decrypt your files or disinfect your PC, you can also use a new tool CryptoSearch to find the ransomware encrypted files.
CryptoSearch is a tool created by people working for BleepingComputer and it purports to search for the files encrypted by various ransomware. The tool can also move these encrypted files to a different location. But it does not offer any other function and no way to disinfect or decrypt these files. If you want to decrypt the files or disinfect your PC, then you will have to depend on tools like Kaspersky NoRansom among others.
In the CryptoSearch, you can pull down the list and select one of the ransomware the files encrypted by which you want to scan for. You can also choose a file extension or byte pattern if you know how a particular ransomware encrypts the files on your PC. There are options to search your entire computer or a folder only. Finally clicking on the Search button will enlist all the possibly encrypted files.
Once the files have been discovered, you can choose to move them to a different folder in the hope of decrypting them some day when such a tool is available. Or you can just try your luck at Kaspersky NoRansom website.
Verdict: Designed mainly from the perspective of a malware researcher, CryptoSearch can find the files encrypted by a number of known ransomware variants. Unfortunately, it cannot decrypt the files which basically limits its usability for a layperson.
You can download CryptoSearch from http://bit.do/c6fA2.