March 28, 2017

Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web has announced that its policy regarding the recovery of ransomware-corrupted files has changed. According to the new rules, free data recovery is now only available to users of commercial Dr.Web licenses provided that the Dr.Web components responsible for reducing the risk of Trojan.Encoder-caused infections were properly configured and running at the moment of infection.

Currently, encryption ransomware remains one of the most severe threats on the World Wide Web, and the number of victims requesting assistance from the Dr.Web support service is steadily growing. Although some Dr.Web anti-virus products incorporate features that provide protection against encryption ransomware and enable users to recover corrupted files, many owners of Dr.Web licenses do not use them, thus reducing the probability of having their files recovered successfully—this is very apparent to the support engineers who examine the Dr.Web logs attached to data-recovery requests.

Therefore, Doctor Web has amended its data recovery policy, which previously allowed all users who purchase commercial Dr.Web licenses to enjoy free decryption of their corrupted files. From now on, free data recovery is only available to users of commercial Dr.Web licenses provided that the Dr.Web components responsible for reducing the risk of Trojan.Encoder-caused infections were properly configured and running at the moment of infection.

Doctor Web is changing its policy regarding the free recovery of ransomware-corrupted files.

The Doctor Web webpage about encryption ransomware now also features a list of reasons why the company can refuse free data recovery requests from users who have purchased commercial licenses for Dr.Web Anti-virus and Dr.Web Security Space. Those whose requests have been declined will instead be offered the option to purchase Dr.Web Rescue Pack which incorporates a decryption utility.

Dear Dr.Web Users! Today an anti-virus alone cannot provide sufficient protection against encryption ransomware. You need our comprehensive security solutions: Dr.Web Security Space , which incorporates Preventive Protection technologies as well as the Data Loss Prevention component, or Dr.Web Desktop Security Suite which includes our Comprehensive Protection license as well as the subscription package Dr.Web Premium. If for some reason you bought a license for just the anti-virus, you can upgrade it to enjoy comprehensive protection.