Nobody wants their computers to be infected by any type of malware but a special breed of malware called ransomware is the threat that every computer user is really afraid of. The reason for this is the way ransomware works – it encrypts your files with very strong cipher and then demands ransom money from the victims in exchange of availing their services to decrypt it. The cyber-criminals controlling a ransomware infected PC from a remote location are not always within the reach of law enforcement agencies and therefore many times the only option for the victims is to pony up the ransom.
The only known guaranteed protection from ransomware attacks (actually all types of malware infections) is to keep a regular backup of your files. We have covered a number of free backup software on this website. But in addition, you should also keep a regular antivirus product installed on your PC for defense against malware. On top of it, you can also use utilities like RansomFree by Cybereason for an extra added layer of defense against ransomware.
RansomFree is designed by former US military cyber-security experts and claims to give you protection from all the known ransomware. It is not dependent on the ransomware signatures like many of the regular anti-malware products. Instead, it monitors your PC for any ransomware-like activity and upon detection it blocks the processes engaged in such an activity. As such it can protect your PC from even not-yet-known ransomware. On their website, they claim that it can stop 99% ransomware strains including never-before-seen ones.
RansomFree is both lightweight and easy to use. You can install it on your PC and forget about it. It will keep protecting your PC in the background. You have nothing to configure. It does show an icon in the notification area and can show alerts when a ransomware is detected. If you right-click on this icon, you have the options to pause the protection for 1 hour, clear history, and check for updates.
Verdict: RansomFree can provide with a new tool for defending your PC against the ransomware threats. But it should be used with regular antivirus products for full protection against all kinds of malware.
You can download RansomFree from https://ransomfree.cybereason.com/.