How To Remove ColdLock ransomware And Restore Infected Files

Simple Steps To Delete ColdLock ransomware From Computer

ColdLock ransomware is known as a highly destructive file-encrypting virus that has infected several Windows PCs till now. It often gets silent intrusion into your work-station and soon after the penetration, starts executing malicious activities in the background. Initially, it inserts its malevolent codes in distinct PC’s locations and grabs full control over the entire device. After that, performs a deep scanning of all the folders in search of the files that are in its target list and once detected, locks them at the end. This hazardous ransomware encrypts your important files and data stored inside your PC and locks your system so that you can’t work on it.

ColdLock ransomware encodes your crucial data by using a powerful RSA-2048 encryption algorithm and appends “.locked” extension with the name of each of them. The extension is used to lock your data. The files that get infected are images, power-point, audios, videos, documents, spreadsheet, archives etc. Once the encryption process is completed, this perilous malware puts a ransom note named “How To Unlock Files.txt” on the desktop and asks you to contact the attackers via the email addresses provided with it. The email addresses have the name of a popular martial artist- Alexander Emelianenko included in them. Hackers demand an amount of ransom in order to get the decryption software and open the infected files. The ransom price is not listed in the note but it might be in the range of $200 to $1500 that has to be paid in BitCoins or any other crypto currency.

Text Presented In The Ransom Note:

!!! ALL YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED !!!

Your files are encrypted by RSA 2048, you are not able to decrypt it by yourself!

Told your CEO/CTO or whoever in charge write us email to restore your files.

WE WILL ONLY KEEP YOUR SECRET KEY FOR 5 DAYS, SO DON’T PULL TIME, WAITING YOUR EMAIL.

Email address:  [email protected]

Reserved email: [email protected]

Your personal ID:

–

Should You Pay The Ransom?

Unfortunately, at the most of the times, file-recovery is impossible without the interference of the attackers. However, no matter what the circumstance is, we strongly deny from making any sort of payment to the ColdLock ransomware authors as you have absolutely no guarantee that they will deliver the required decryptor even after taking the money. Remember that the only motive of such hackers is to extort illicit money from the victimized people. There are several instances when victims just got cheated by the criminals once the payment is made and experienced both data as well as money loss. Irrespective of the circumstances, you should never consider dealing with the crooks as it will only convince them to drop more such infections in the work-station for further incomes. And hence, never trust on the scammers and try to remove ColdLock ransomware from the computer as soon as possible.

How To Recover The Infected Files?

This precarious crypto-virus is able of delete the shadow volume copies (temporary backup made by operating system) of the infected files and hence, retrieving those files becomes even more difficult. For this, you can use a powerful file-recovery application that you can download right here via the link provided under this article. Furthermore, in order to deal with such nasty situation, you should keep making regular backups by the help of which, you can easily restore the infected or lost files.

Intrusion of This Crypto-virus And Tips To Prevent It:

Ransomware threats are usually spread via spam email campaigns. Cyber crooks send you emails that are often disguised as “important” or “official”. However, they contain precarious files as attachments in forms of Microsoft and PDF documents, JavaScript, executable and archive files etc. The moment you open the mail and click on the attachment, it gets triggered and leads to the virus intrusion. Besides, trojans, fake updaters and unreliable download channels may also cause ransomware infiltration into your work-station.

In order to keep your computer away from ColdLock ransomware or other similar threats, it is strongly recommended to ignore suspicious mails that you receive from unknown sender. Never open any attachment present in such mail as doing so may lead to the virus penetration. Select only reliable or official site to download any application and update any software with tools delivered by genuine authors. Never use third-party downloaders and illegal activation tools. Also, don’t forget to use a strong anti-malware software and scan the full device to find and remove trojan virus if there is any.

Summarize Information

Name: ColdLock 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- “.locked”

Ransom demanding message- “How To Unlock Files.txt”

Attackers’ Contact- [email protected] and [email protected]

Symptoms: Users can not open files available on their desktop, previously functional files now have different extension, 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 ColdLock ransomware:

Initially, ColdLock ransomware makes hazardous entries in Windows registry and changes its default settings in order to get automatically activated with each Window reboot. It messes with important system files which assure efficient PC functioning and prevents many installed apps as well as drivers from working normally. This deadly file-encoding virus can be also responsible for the penetration of many other Online infections such as rootkits, adware, trojans, worms, spyware etc. in your computer as well since it has ability to deactivate all the running security measures and open backdoors for them. It eats up enormous amount of memory resources and drags down the overall computer performance severely. And hence, don’t waste any time, just take a quick action and remove ColdLock ransomware from the computer by following the effective removal steps given below.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

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

Step 2: Delete ColdLock ransomware using “System Restore”

Step 1: Remove ColdLock 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 ColdLock ransomware using “System Restore”

Log-in to the account infected with ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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 ColdLock 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.