Bitdefender, a Romanian cybersecurity firm, has released a free DarkSide ransomware decryptor which allows victims to recover their stole files without the need to pay a ransom. DarkSide is a ransomware that has been targeting organisations since August 2020 and since then has received a number of payouts, with a spike in its usage between October and December 2020. The decryptor by Bitdefender allows victims of DarkSide ransomware to scan their entire system in order to find encrypted files.
Bitdefender said, “to remove the encrypted files left behind, you should search for files matching the extension and mass-remove them.” They also said that “we do not encourage you to do this until you made sure that your files can be opened safely and there is no damage to the decrypted files.”