If you have found the .gif shown above in every folder containing your audio and the Last Modified dates have all been changed to be both the same and very recent, then you've been hit by criminals. That is a ransom note offering to undo the malicious damage they have wrought on your system in return for money (Bitcoin accepted!)

When that happened to one of our customers, a search of the web turned up some basic tools but left it necessary to edit the audio in every file manually to make it again fit for use. With tens of thousands of files at risk, writing a fix became pressing so we have written a tool specifically to recover audio from the effects of Cryptorbit. We have now completed the work; the audio is restored and no money has changed hands.

We offer it now free of charge to whomever it may help with the usual 'as is' disclaimers: test and try on copies first. It may be downloaded from the link to the right.

If it saves you some grief, we'd like for you to save others some grief. Please donate towards the work of just one individual - a friend of ours - working in a hospital in Haiti. We promise that all of the money we receive will be passed on to help the work at the coalface without going through middlemen. She can use all the help she can get. Thanks.

Information available and donations welcomed at i n f o @ radiomation.com.

Feb 2016: Since writing the software here, ransomware hacks have become more prevalent. Here is but one example.

Have you got your plan in place to deal with it?