How To Remove Ahegao ransomware And Restore Infected Data

Proper Guide To Delete Ahegao ransomware From System

Ahegao ransomware is a hazardous file-encoding virus that has been specially crafted by a team of vicious hackers in order to lock users’ essential files and then extort huge amount of ransom money from them. This perilous threat uses a strong AES-256 cryptography to encrypt your essential data such as videos, audios, PDFs, documents, databases etc. and renames those files by appending “.ahegao” extension with each of them as suffix. After being locked by this deadly crypto-virus, all of the compromised data become inaccessible and can be only opened by using the decryption software that you will have to buy from the attackers.

Following successfully encryption, Ahegao ransomware displays a ransom note and asks you to pay the attackers a ransom amount of $50 in BitCoins to get the required tool. You will have to make the payment within 72 hours otherwise the key will be deleted permanently and thus, you will not be able to retrieve those files once again. For more details, you are asked to contact the hackers via the email address provided with the note.

Text Presented in The Ransom Note:

Encrypted

YOU FILES HAVE BEEN ENCRYPTED !

Oh no. The important files on your computer have been encrypted with military grade AES-256 bit encryption.

Your documents, videos, images and other forms of data are now inaccessible, and cannot be unlocked without the decryption key. This key is currently hidden.

To acquire this key, please transfer the Bitcoin Fee to the specified wallet/bitcoin address before the time runs out.

Bitcoin fee: 50 USD

Bitcoin address: 3F3XAJE1j52bM9tWZ3zFBofbAHkHwTxnFQ

If you fail to take action within this time window, the decryption key will be destroyed and access to your files will be permanently lost.

You can buy and transfer Bitcoin (a digital currency) on the following websites: localbitcoins.com, coinbase.com, paxful.com and many more. All you have to do is buy the specified amount of Bitcoin and send/transfer them to the specified address/wallet.

After you have done the transaction OR if you have any questions, please contact [email protected]. We will be glad to answer your questions or to provide the decryption key to unlock your files (please include your Bitcoin address).

Additionally we offer you to decrypt the files for free by solving a challenge. You need to have a little knowledge about computers:

–

TIME REMAINING 71 : 52 : 05

WALLET ADDRESS: 3F3XAJE1j52bM9tWZ3zFBofbAHkHwTxnFQ

BITCOIN FEE: 0.0047

View Encrypted Files

Enter Decryption Key

Should You Pay The Demanded Ransom?

At most of the times, it is impossible to retrieve the infected data without using the decryptor and hence, many victims agree to deal with the criminals. However, they often end up with losing both files as well as money. Remember, the only purpose of such crooks is to extort illicit revenues from the victimized users; they are not going to deliver the necessary software even after taking the extortion. Sometime, attackers provide bogus application to the victims in the name of decryption tool which upon getting installed, causes even more hazards in the machine with its perilous activities. And hence, never make any sort of payment to the hackers and try to delete Ahegao ransomware from the work-station immediately. As far as restoring the infected files is concerned, use a backup made on any external drive or a powerful data-recovery application that you can download right here through the link given under this article.

Ways To Spread Ahegao ransomware:

Cyber criminals use various deceptive methods to spread such crypto-virus infections, however, in most cases they use spam email campaigns. Such emails contain a hyperlink or an attachment that would start the malware intrusion process the moment you click on them. They are often labelled as ‘important’ or ‘urgent’ but involve malevolent attachments. And hence, ignore suspicious mails coming from unknown source as you never know what they are containing. Moreover, you often see fake update notifications which claim that your Adobe Flash Player is out-dated and needs to be updated quickly. You are also given an update link but once you click on it, an infectious program gets downloaded automatically. So, ignore these fake messages and avoid clicking on any suspicious link.

Threat Details

Name: Ahegao ransomware

Type: Ransomware, Crypto-virus

Description- Destructive malware that aims to encrypt users’ crucial files and then ask them to pay off for the decryption key/tool.

Extension- “.ahegao”

Ransom demanding message- Text presented in the pop-up window

Attackers’ Contact- [email protected]

BitCoins Wallter Address- 3F3XAJE1j52bM9tWZ3zFBofbAHkHwTxnFQ

Symptoms: Users can not open files available on their desktop, previously functional files now have different extensions, A ransom demanding message is displayed on the desktop screen. Users are asked to pay an amount of ransom to unlock their encoded data and files.

Distribution methods: Spam emails, Torrent websites, peer to peer network sharing, unofficial activation and updating tools.

Damage: All files are encrypted and cannot be accessed without paying ransom, Additional password stealing Trojans and malware infections can be installed along with ransomware infections and other malware.

Removal: To remove this virus from the system, we advise you to use a reliable anti-malware tool. Once malware gets removed, you can recover your files by using existing backup or data-recovery software.

Other Common Symptoms of Ahegao ransomware:

Once Ahegao ransomware sneaks into your computer, it makes several unexpected alterations to default system settings before it initiates the file encoding process. It messes with vital system files, deletes shadow volume copies, disables Windows repair function, connects to a remote server by using several domains and raises its privileges that are quite exceptional ransomware-kind viruses. Apart from encrypting your crucial data, this perilous crypto-threat also creates tons of junk files in the hard drive of your machine which eats up huge amount of memory resources and drag down the overall PC performance severely. And therefore, it is necessary to remove Ahegao ransomware from the machine immediately by following the effective removal steps given below.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

Step 1: Remove Ahegao ransomware through “Safe Mode with Networking”

Step 2: Delete Ahegao ransomware using “System Restore”

Step 1: Remove Ahegao ransomware through “Safe Mode with Networking”

For Windows XP and Windows 7 users: Boot the PC in “Safe Mode”. Click on “Start” option and continuously press on F8 during the start process until the “Windows Advanced Option” menu appears on the screen. Choose “Safe Mode with Networking” from the list.

Now, a windows homescreen appears on the desktop and work-station is now working on “Safe mode with networking”.

For Windows 8 Users: Go to the “Start Screen”. In the search results select settings, type “Advanced”. In the “General PC Settings” option, choose “Advanced startup” option. Again, click on the “Restart Now” option. The work-station boots to “Advanced Startup Option Menu”. Press on “Troubleshoot” and then “Advanced options” button. In the “Advanced Option Screen”, press on “Startup Settings”. Again, click on “Restart” button. The work-station will now restart in to the “Startup Setting” screen. Next is to press F5 to boot in Safe Mode in Networking.

For Windows 10 Users: Press on Windows logo and on the “Power” icon. In the newly opened menu, choose “Restart” while continuously holding “Shift” button on the keyboard. In the new open “Choose an option” window, click on “Troubleshoot” and then on the “Advanced Options”. Select “Startup Settings” and press on “Restart”. In the next window, click on “F5” button on the key-board.

Step 2: Delete Ahegao ransomware using “System Restore”

Log-in to the account infected with Ahegao ransomware. Open the browser and download a legitimate anti-malware tool. Do a full System scanning. Remove all the malicious detected entries.

In case if you cannot start the PC in “Safe Mode with Networking”, Try using “System Restore”

• During the “Startup”, continuously press on F8 key until the “Advanced Option” menu appears. From the list, choose “Safe Mode with Command Prompt” and then press “Enter”

• In the new opened command prompt, enter “cd restore” and then press “Enter”.

• Type: rstrui.exe and Press “ENTER”

• Click “Next” on the new windows

• Choose any of the “Restore Points” and click on “Next”. (This step will restore the work-station to its earlier time and date prior to Ahegao ransomware infiltration in the PC.

• In the newly opened windows, press on “Yes”.

Once your PC gets restored to its previous date and time, download the recommended anti-malware tool and perform a deep scanning in order to remove Ahegao ransomware files if they left in the work-station.

In order to restore the each (separate) file by this ransomware, use “Windows Previous Version” feature. This method is effective when “System Restore Function” is enabled in the work-station.

Important Note: Some variants of Ahegao ransomware delete the “Shadow Volume Copies” as well hence this feature may not work all the time and is applicable for selective computers only.

How to Restore Individual Encrypted File:

In order to restore a single file, right click on it and go to “Properties”. Select “Previous Version” tab. Select a “Restore Point” and click on “Restore” option.

In order to access the files encrypted by Ahegao ransomware, you can also try using “Shadow Explorer”. In order to get more information on this application, press here.

Important: Data Encryption Ransomware are highly dangerous and it is always better that you take precautions to avoid its attack on your work-station. It is advised to use a powerful anti-malware tool in order to get protection in real-time. With this help of “SpyHunter”, “group policy objects” are implanted in the registries in order to block harmful infections like Ahegao ransomware.

Also, In Windows 10, you get a very unique feature called “Fall Creators Update” that offer “Controlled Folder Access” feature in order to block any kind of encryption to the files. With the help of this feature, any files stored in the locations such as “Documents”, “Pictures”, “Music”, “Videos”, “Favorites” and “Desktop” folders are safe by default.

It is very important that you install this “Windows 10 Fall Creators Update” in your PC to protect your important files and data from ransomware encryption. The more information on how to get this update and add an additional protection form rnasomware attack has been discussed here.

How to Recover the Files Encrypted by Ahegao ransomware?

Till now, you would have understood that what had happed to your personal files that got encrypted and how you can remove the scripts and payloads associated with Ahegao ransomware in order to protect your personal files that has not been damaged or encrypted until now. In order to retrieve the locked files, the depth information related to “System Restore” and “Shadow Volume Copies” has already been discussed earlier. However, in case if you are still unable to access the encrypted files then you can try using a data recovery tool.

Use of Data Recovery Tool

This step is for all those victims who have already tries all the above mentioned process but didn’t find any solution. Also it is important that you are able to access the PC and can install any software. The data recovery tool works on the basis of System scanning and recovery algorithm. It searches the System partitions in order to locate the original files which were deleted, corrupted or damaged by the malware. Remember that you must not re-install the Windows OS otherwise the “previous” copies will get deleted permanently. You have to clean the work-station at first and remove Ahegao ransomware infection. Leave the locked files as it is and follow the steps mentioned below.

Step1: Download the software in the work-station by clicking on the “Download” button below.

Step2: Execute the installer by clicking on downloaded files.

Step3: A license agreement page appears on the screen. Click on “Accept” to agree with its terms and use. Follow the on-screen instruction as mentioned and click on “Finish” button.

Step4: Once the installation gets completed, the program gets executed automatically. In the newly opened interface, select the file types that you want to recover and click on “Next”.

Step5: You can select the “Drives” on which you want the software to run and execute the recovery process. Next is to click on the “Scan” button.

Step6: Based on drive you select for scanning, the restore process begins. The whole process may take time depending on the volume of the selected drive and number of files. Once the process gets completed, a data explorer appears on the screen with preview of that data that is to be recovered. Select the files that you want to restore.

Step7. Next is to locate the location where you want to saver the recovered files.