How To Remove Citadel virus From PC

Citadel virus: Complete Uninstall Guide

Citadel virus has been identified as a notorious computer infection that is known for data-stealing. This precarious trojan was first discovered in 2011 and is based on Zeus virus. Developer of this parasite Mark Vartanyan aka “Kolypto” uses this notable keylogging tool to harvest the login credentials from the highly popular password managers such as Password Safe or Keepass. Since the creation of this threat, it has compromised over 11 million PC systems all over the world that caused the affected users lose $500 million. In March 2017, the operator of this trojan was extradited to the United States with the help of joint efforts of the Microsoft and FBI. He had to face criminal charges related to malware and was put into federal prison for five years.

Depth Analysis Of Citadel virus:

For several years, Citadel virus was offered on the underground forums and was amongst the first virus that criminals used for malware-as-a-service (MAAS) scheme. A number of infection methods were used by the partners, such as Blackhole EK, to affect users with a vicious payload and then involved the system network into a botnet, later on dropping virus. Though, the operator of this virus is already inside the prison, people should not think that this nasty trojan is no more active. And hence, they need to be aware of earlier infections since the presence of this virus may lead to severe hazardous issues.

When the Citadel virus was detained in 2016, a new version based on it was released named Atoms. It was specially designed to target banks. Nevertheless, it was later on utilized to proliferate TeslaCrypt ransomware, initially penetrating computer devices via spiteful web injects. This perilous infection is able to get into the PC devices and remain inside the machine for a long time which means, it can’t be easily detected by the security programs.

Due to Citadel virus, victims may have to deal with many other hazardous issues such as frequent system crash, hard drive failure, data loss, boot errors, application malfunctioning and so on. It can deactivate all the running security services and make the system vulnerable for more notorious parasites. It may easily bring other online threats like spyware, RATs, adware, ransomware etc. in your PC and turn the machine into a malware-hub. And hence, an instant Citadel virus removal is strongly required.

Ways To Spread Citadel virus:

Banking malware, RATs, ransomware and other similar threats are often distributed by cyber hackers via sophisticated methods. And hence, the delivery of such parasites is generally much more complicated. Some of the commonly used malware distribution techniques are:

• Spam emails
• Pirates software installers
• Exploits
• Software vulnerabilities
• Fake updates
• Web injects, etc.

To prevent such intrusions, it is important to be very careful while surfing the web and stay away from these notorious sources to keep the device harmless and secured. Never open suspicious emails coming from unknown senders as they often contain malicious files and upon clicked, lead to the virus installation. Update or download software from official sites only and avoid using unreliable channels. Never click on malicious ads or links that usually appear while web surfing as they might redirect you to malware-laced pages. But at the moment, you must remove Citadel virus from the computer without wasting any time.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows Click Here For Mac

Important Note: This malware asks you to enable the web browser notifications. So, before you go the manual removal process, execute these steps.

Google Chrome (PC)

• Go to right upper corner of the screen and click on three dots to open the Menu button
• Select “Settings”. Scroll the mouse downward to choose “Advanced” option
• Go to “Privacy and Security” section by scrolling downward and then select “Content settings” and then “Notification” option
• Find each suspicious URLs and click on three dots on the right side and choose “Block” or “Remove” option

Google Chrome (Android)

• Go to right upper corner of the screen and click on three dots to open the menu button and then click on “Settings”
• Scroll down further to click on “site settings” and then press on “notifications” option
• In the newly opened window, choose each suspicious URLs one by one
• In the permission section, select “notification” and “Off” the toggle button

Mozilla Firefox

• On the right corner of the screen, you will notice three dots which is the “Menu” button
• Select “Options” and choose “Privacy and Security” in the toolbar present in the left side of the screen
• Slowly scroll down and go to “Permission” section then choose “Settings” option next to “Notifications”
• In the newly opened window, select all the suspicious URLs. Click on the drop-down menu and select “Block”

Internet Explorer

• In the Internet Explorer window, select the Gear button present on the right corner
• Choose “Internet Options”
• Select “Privacy” tab and then “Settings” under the “Pop-up Blocker” section
• Select all the suspicious URLs one by one and click on the “Remove” option

Microsoft Edge

• Open the Microsoft Edge and click on the three dots on the right corner of the screen to open the menu
• Scroll down and select “Settings”
• Scroll down further to choose “view advanced settings”
• In the “Website Permission” option, click on “Manage” option
• Click on switch under every suspicious URL

Safari (Mac):

• On the upper right side corner, click on “Safari” and then select “Preferences”
• Go to “website” tab and then choose “Notification” section on the left pane
• Search for the suspicious URLs and choose “Deny” option for each one of them

Manual Steps to Remove Citadel virus:

Remove the related items of Citadel virus using Control-Panel

Windows 7 Users

Click “Start” (the windows logo at the bottom left corner of the desktop screen), select “Control Panel”. Locate the “Programs” and then followed by clicking on “Uninstall Program”

Windows XP Users

Click “Start” and then choose “Settings” and then click “Control Panel”. Search and click on “Add or Remove Program’ option

Windows 10 and 8 Users:

Go to the lower left corner of the screen and right-click. In the “Quick Access” menu, choose “Control Panel”. In the newly opened window, choose “Program and Features”

Mac OSX Users

Click on “Finder” option. Choose “Application” in the newly opened screen. In the “Application” folder, drag the app to “Trash”. Right click on the Trash icon and then click on “Empty Trash”.

In the uninstall programs window, search for the PUAs. Choose all the unwanted and suspicious entries and click on “Uninstall” or “Remove”.

After you uninstall all the potentially unwanted program causing Citadel virus issues, scan your computer with an anti-malware tool for any remaining PUPs and PUAs or possible malware infection. To scan the PC, use the recommended the anti-malware tool.

How to Remove Adware (Citadel virus) from Internet Browsers

Delete malicious add-ons and extensions from IE

Click on the gear icon at the top right corner of Internet Explorer. Select “Manage Add-ons”. Search for any recently installed plug-ins or add-ons and click on “Remove”.

Additional Option

If you still face issues related to Citadel virus removal, you can reset the Internet Explorer to its default setting.

Windows XP users: Press on “Start” and click “Run”. In the newly opened window, type “inetcpl.cpl” and click on the “Advanced” tab and then press on “Reset”.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 Users: Press the Windows logo, type inetcpl.cpl in the start search box and press enter. In the newly opened window, click on the “Advanced Tab” followed by “Reset” button.

For Windows 8 Users: Open IE and click on the “gear” icon. Choose “Internet Options”

Select the “Advanced” tab in the newly opened window

Press on “Reset” option

You have to press on the “Reset” button again to confirm that you really want to reset the IE

Remove Doubtful and Harmful Extension from Google Chrome

Go to menu of Google Chrome by pressing on three vertical dots and select on “More tools” and then “Extensions”. You can search for all the recently installed add-ons and remove all of them.

Optional Method

If the problems related to Citadel virus still persists or you face any issue in removing, then it is advised that your reset the Google Chrome browse settings. Go to three dotted points at the top right corner and choose “Settings”. Scroll down bottom and click on “Advanced”.

At the bottom, notice the “Reset” option and click on it.

In the next opened window, confirm that you want to reset the Google Chrome settings by click on the “Reset” button.

Remove Citadel virus plugins (including all other doubtful plug-ins) from Firefox Mozilla

Open the Firefox menu and select “Add-ons”. Click “Extensions”. Select all the recently installed browser plug-ins.

Optional Method

If you face problems in Citadel virus removal then you have the option to rese the settings of Mozilla Firefox.

Open the browser (Mozilla Firefox) and click on the “menu” and then click on “Help”.

Choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the newly opened pop-up window, click “Refresh Firefox” button

The next step is to confirm that really want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to its default by clicking on “Refresh Firefox” button.

Remove Malicious Extension from Safari

Open the Safari and go to its “Menu” and select “Preferences”.

Click on the “Extension” and select all the recently installed “Extensions” and then click on “Uninstall”.

Optional Method

Open the “Safari” and go menu. In the drop-down menu, choose “Clear History and Website Data”.

In the newly opened window, select “All History” and then press on “Clear History” option.

Delete Citadel virus (malicious add-ons) from Microsoft Edge

Open Microsoft Edge and go to three horizontal dot icons at the top right corner of the browser. Select all the recently installed extensions and right click on the mouse to “uninstall”

Optional Method

Open the browser (Microsoft Edge) and select “Settings”

Next steps is to click on “Choose what to clear” button

Click on “show more” and then select everything and then press on “Clear” button.

Conclusion

In most cases, the PUPs and adware gets inside the marked PC through unsafe freeware downloads. It is advised that you should only choose developers website only while downloading any kind of free applications. Choose custom or advanced installation process so that you can trace the additional PUPs listed for installation along with the main program.