Researchers at the University of Florida and Villanova University have developed software they say can halt ransomware.
The breed of malware - which encrypts users' files and demands that they pay a ransom, often of thousands of rand and within a specified time period, in order to retrieve them - is becoming increasingly common, leaving more individuals, businesses, and public institutions vulnerable to attack.
The researchers' solution, CryptoDrop, pledges to detect ransomware attacks early on and stop them in their tracks, after only a small percentage of the victim's files have been encrypted.
Associate professor in the UF department of computer and information science Patrick Traynor told the BBC that the software is "more of an early-warning system" in that rather than completely preventing the attack, it drastically reduces its impact, and leaves many users able to refuse the ransom without losing too many valuable files.
The developers report that CryptoDrop detected 100% of ransomware samples and stopped them after an average of just ten files had been encrypted.
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