How To Remove Cruel Sister ransomware And Recover Infected Data

Tips To Delete Cruel Sister ransomware From Computer

Cruel Sister ransomware is a type of destructive malware infection that prevents users from accessing their system or personal files and demands ransom money in order to regain access to them. Such kind of file-encoding viruses are being generated by Cyber actors on a large scale these days as they are the biggest source of income for them. Once successfully gets into your work-station, it encrypts all your important data with extension such as .mp3, .mp4, .docx, .pdf, .jpeg, .png, .html, .gif, .sql and others and makes them completely inaccessible or unusable. The infected files and documents can be easily identified as this hazardous threat appends either “.cruel” or “.sister” extension with the name of each of them.

Whenever you try to open any of your compromised data, Cruel Sister ransomware shows a ransom note on your desktop screen and asks for big amount to be paid to get decryption key/tool to unlock those files. The ransom note also includes an email address in order to contact the attackers and get further details. Crooks ask you to pay $200 to $1500 in BitCoins depending on the file size or how quickly you establish contact with the attackers. If you deny paying extortion amount, they claim to delete all the infected data permanently.

Should You Pay The Ransom?

Security experts strong deny from contacting or paying any sort of extortion to the Cruel Sister ransomware authors as you have absolutely no guarantee that they will fulfil their promises even after taking the ransom. It has been seen that such types of criminals often ignore the victimized people once the transaction is done and cause them to lose both files as well as money. Also, even if they deliver the tool that works and opens the locked files, malware will still remain in the system and can strike again for further profits. Moreover, during the transaction period, hackers can steal your personal data regarding banking details, misuse them for generating illicit revenues and cause you to suffer a big financial loss. And thus, never trust on the criminals and try to remove Cruel Sister ransomware from the machine as soon as possible.

How To Recover The Infected Files?

This notorious crypto-virus is able to delete the shadow volume copies (temporary backup made by OS itself) of the infected files that makes even more complicated for you to retrieve those data. For this, you should use a powerful data-recovery application which you can download right here through the link provided under this article. Moreover, you should keep making regular backups of your important files, data, documents etc. that can be very helpful in restoring the data in such perilous situation.

How Does This Crypto-virus Enter Your System?

Similar to many other notorious infections of same kind, this nasty file-encoding virus also enters the targeted PC via corrupted emails. The email attachments coming from unknown source have malevolent files in forms of PDF, word, .exe or script etc. When you open such emails and download its attachment, it adds malign codes to boot section and start up that helps to auto generate in network environment or via removable storage device. In order to lure people into their falsehood, Cyber criminals often employ psychological terror. For example, they may simulate the alerts of the FBI and force users into opening the infected attachment that contains the executable of the parasite. System vulnerabilities may work as the backdoors for malware to sneak into the computer and then bring down destruction. Additionally, there are several trojan viruses that are responsible for the delivery of crypto-viruses. Your computer might also get stroked with such infections if there is any trojan virus staying inside the device. Also, clicking on infectious ads and hyperlinks might cause malware intrusion in the work-station too.

Threat Details

Name: Cruel Sister 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- “.cruel” or “.sister”

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.

Tips To Prevent The Commuter From Such Attacks:

In order to avoid the threat of being infected by Cruel Sister ransomware or other similar parasites, it is highly required to be very attentive while browsing the Internet. Check doubtful emails coming from unknown sender first before opening them as they might include vicious attachments. Such attachments are in forms of MS office documents, .exe files, PDF files, archive files etc. which automatically get executed and leads to the virus penetration once you click on it. Avoid tapping upon perilous ads or hyperlinks as they might redirect you to websites that are filled with malicious stuffs. Use a reliable anti-malware tool and scan the complete device to check whether there is any trojan or similar infection in the computer. If you find anything like that, remove it from the PC quickly. But, at the moment, just take a quick action and delete Cruel Sister ransomware from the machine by following the effective removal steps given below.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

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

Step 2: Delete Cruel Sister ransomware using “System Restore”

Step 1: Remove Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister ransomware using “System Restore”

Log-in to the account infected with Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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 Cruel Sister 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.