Claims complete efficacy. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2016/01/27/malwarebytes-anti-ransomware/1
I'm probably going to make a fool of myself (what's new) but you'd think there'd be some way , or file system, that could set an encryption flag like the read only flag.
At best the only thing an operating system could do is protect its own files from being encrypted by some third party encryption thing. But operating system files are not really that important compared to user data. You need to be able to do what ever you need to do with your own files which includes encrypting them. If you are talking about making a no encrypt switch on files like a read only switch on a floppy I don't think that would work either. A program simply has to take a copy of a file binary into memory, place it into an encrypted container then delete the original. Programs do this kind of action all the item, read in a file, manipulate it in some manner and save the manipulated contents either to a new file or as the original. It's basic stuff in terms of software. It doesn't matter what flags are set against the file or not. If you prevent a program from doing this, then you would prevent notepad or word from editing a file as well. The only way it can be stopped is by monitoring the encryption process externally like the malware bytes software does. It can't come from the file or file system.
OK, all well and good but why not wrap this up into Malwarebytes proper? The problem with this approach is that most users don't know what the difference is between Spyware/Malware/Viruses/Ransomware etc etc. Technically Ransmomware and Malware are the same regardless. Creating several programs just seems destined to create customer confusion.
@Jimbob This is a beta, which also means they don't distribute it with any real guarantee concerning reliability. I'm sure once they have more confidence in the software, they'll tag it along to their main product. Also, this way people using competing infosec solutions can still give it a try. As they are the only ones with this kind of thing readily available (even though as beta), they'll potentially hit a larger market than their usual users.
I installed it and found that it won't allow me to save a Word 2003 document to any internal or USB drives. Now uninstalled.
