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My laptop has been hijacked by the ransomware virus. I really have no files on my computer worth paying for. However, how do I continue to use my computer after it has been hijacked? I did a system restore back to when it came in the box, but the ransom screen still covers my home page. Kevin
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Ransomware is a type of malware that demands money with menaces: it takes control of your PC, and wants you to pay to get it back. In general, it’s best to avoid paying. If you feel you have no choice, then the malware has exposed critical flaws in your malware protection, and backup and recovery procedures. No reputable business should ever find itself in this position. However, some have been caught out by ransomware that infects files on the server as well as on individual PCs, when they did not have adequate offline or cloud backups.
Ransomware shouldn’t even get through if a PC is running a fully updated copy of Windows, Microsoft’s SmartScreen or Google Safe Browsing, and up-to-date anti-virus software. Nowadays, most anti-virus software is familiar with all the common variants of ransomware, and if not, should include heuristics that recognise potentially dangerous activities, such as encrypting files. Unfortunately, users can install ransomware themselves, either by downloading infected files or by running files that arrive in phishing emails.
Of course, anti-virus programs should scan those files as well. If you have doubts, upload the file to Virus Total and have it checked by more than 50 anti-virus programs.
In principle, it should be possible to defeat all ransomware by immediately disconnecting your PC from the internet, reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling everything from a backup. If your laptop is running Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, then I would expect the “Restore factory settings” option to solve the problem, if you can get to it. Try typing “reinstall” in the Windows search box, then click on “Remove everything and reinstall Windows”.
This is different from the “system restore” function in earlier versions of Windows, which tries to take the PC back to an earlier state. You can do that by starting your PC in Safe Mode, choosing “Safe Mode with Command Prompt” from the Advanced Boot Options menu, typing rstrui.exe and pressing Enter. Apparently this works with some early types of ransomware, but I suspect that’s not what you did.
Alternatively, you may be able to run a program such as MalwareBytes Anti-Malware from a CD/DVD or a USB thumb drive, possibly after using Process Explorer to kill the browser or other malware process. I keep a USB thumbdrive with a selection of repair utilities in case I need them for this sort of purpose. Many people use a “rescue disk” such as the ones from Comodo and Kaspersky. These include utilities that can run from a USB device. Kaspersky also explains How to record Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 to a USB device and boot a computer from it.
Types of ransomware
There are many different types of ransomware, and they work in different ways. You need to know which bit of malware has infected your laptop so that you can search for removal instructions. There are at least a couple of dozen to choose from. The most common include Crowti, FakeBsod, Reveton and Tescrpt, while Petya is one of the worst.
The new No More Ransom! website, backed by the European Cybercrime Centre, has useful advice plus screen shots of some common ransomware screens, while Jen Ruhman has a LinkedIn page with 27 screenshots. Alternatively, you could do an image search for ransomware, or even upload your own screenshot and do a reverse image search.
The type of laptop also makes a difference, as does the operating system. Most ransomware infections are aimed at Microsoft Windows, but a couple have targeted Apple Macs, Linux machines and Android smartphones. When it comes to Windows laptops, older models running Windows 7, Vista or XP are more vulnerable: the malware can infect the MBR or Master Boot Record. (Boot sector viruses have been common for many years.) Newer Windows 8/8/1/10 systems with UEFI startup sequences and SecureBoot are less vulnerable.
Removal
Some ransomware viruses are relatively easy to remove, while others are hard. The easiest ones are “scareware” browser screens that claim your laptop has been locked by the FBI or a local police force. This is never true. You can usually stop them by using the Windows Task Manager to close the browser, or force quit on Macs, then run an anti-virus program to remove them.
The harder ones encrypt either the Master File Table in Windows, or individual files, or the whole hard drive.
The Master File Table keeps track of all the sectors on the hard drive, and which bits of which files are stored in those sectors. It the MFT is encrypted, it’s theoretically possible to rescue files by using an undelete program such as EaseUS’s Undelete (Windows or Mac) or Piriform’s Recuva. However, untangling and identifying more than a few files could be a huge task.
The worst ransomware programs encrypt files or hard drives with military strength encryption. However, all is not necessarily lost. There are at least 20 programs designed to decrypt these files, from companies such as AVG, Emissoft, and Kaspersky Lab. The Windows Club has a good List of free Ransomware Decryptor Tools to unlock files, with links.
However, if your ransomware encrypts each file with its own unique key, like Rokku, then you will probably not get your files back. This is why offline and possible offsite backups are essential for protecting valuable data.
The future
Ransomware has been around for a long time, starting with Joseph Popp’s PC Cyborg in 1989, but it only started to become more common about a decade ago. Fortunately, it was hard for the criminals to harvest money without being tracked and identified.
That problem was largely solved by the arrival of the dark web (via Tor) and Bitcoin, the pseudonymous digital cryptocurrency. Most ransomware victims have probably never used Bitcoin, so infected PCs have to provide clear instructions on how to make payments, and then how to decrypt their files.
The standard recommendation is never to pay the criminals who propagate ransomware, because financial success will attract more criminals to the industry. In some cases, people will pay, because they think the chance of recovering their files is worth more than the cost.
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For home users, of course, it’s always cheaper and easier to buy an external hard drive and make a back-up than pay for files to be decrypted. In most cases, it’s also cheaper to buy a USB DVD or Blu-ray drive and make backups on optical discs. No ransomware can encrypt files on those.
Advanced Computer System Repair
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