Bitdefender anti-malware researchers have released a new vaccine tool which can protect against known and possible future versions of the CTB-Locker, Locky and TeslaCrypt crypto ransomware families by exploiting flaws in their spreading methods.

“The new tool is an outgrowth of the Cryptowall vaccine program, in a way.” Chief Security Strategist Catalin Cosoi explained. “We had been looking at ways to prevent this ransomware from encrypting files even on computers that were not protected by Bitdefender antivirus and we realized we could extend the idea.”

The new tool is available for download on the Bitdefender website.

A study conducted by Bitdefender in November 2015 on 3,009 Internet users from the US, France, Germany, Denmark, the UK and Romania offers a victim’s perspective on data loss through crypto-ransomware: