Remove Acuff ransomware And Recover Locked Files

Proper Guide To Delete Acuff ransomware

Acuff ransomware is a dangerous computer virus that can silently infiltrate the Windows PCs without users’ approval and encrypt all their crucial files and data stored inside their systems. The main motive of the hackers behind such lethal attack is to extort illicit ransom money from the victimized users. And therefore, soon after the successful encryption, it starts blackmailing them for the decryption tool. Belonging to the family of ABC, this hazardous crypto-virus can infect almost all types of files including videos, images, documents, PDFs, presentations etc. and make them completely inaccessible or unusable.

Depth Analysis of Acuff ransomware:

Acuff ransomware locks the targeted files using a strong cryptography and also renames them by adding victims’ ID, attackers’ email address and appending “.Acuff” extension with each of them. After completing the encryption process, this hazardous crypto-malware displays couple of ransom notes in “info.hta” and “info.txt” files. These notes inform victims about the unkind situation and also ask them to contact the hackers via the provided email addresses to get more details.

At the end, you may have to pay the Acuff ransomware authors a ransom amount of $200 to $1500 in BitCoins or any other digital currency. Criminals also offer to decrypt 5 locked files for free that have to be sent via the email. However, these files should not contain any valuable information.

Should You Pay The Ransom?

Whatever the circumstance might be, you should not consider making any sort of payment to the Acuff ransomware authors. These criminals are not supposed to provide the required decryptor as it has been their tendency that they often ignore the victims once the ransom is paid. At various occasions, crooks provide rogue software to the affected people which causes even more threats to the work-station. Furthermore, paying ransom to cyber actors will only motivate them to create and spread more such viruses for further revenues.

What Should The Victims Do?

If you are a victimized user, the first thing you need to do here is to perform Acuff ransomware removal from the computer as early as possible. For data-recovery you should use alternative methods such as Volume Shadow Copies (temporary backup made by OS itself). Ransomware programs often delete the Volume Shadows. If this is the case here then you should use a recently made backup or a powerful file-recovery application.

Threat Summary

Name: Acuff ransomware

Type: Ransomware, File-encrypting malware, Crypto-virus

Short Description: Dangerous crypto-parasite that locks users’ crucial data and then asks them to pay the attackers an amount of ransom to get the decryption software/key.

Extension:  “.Acuff”

Ransom Demanding Notes: Pop-up window (info.hta), info.txt

Attackers’ contact: [email protected], [email protected]

Symptoms: Locked data become inaccessible and useless stored inside the compromised systems, previous functional data now have different extension, A ransom demanding message is left on each affected folder and a pop-up window is exhibited. Users are asked to pay an amount of ransom to unlock their encoded data and files.

Distribution methods: Spam emails, 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.

Ways To Spread Acuff ransomware:

Most of the times, these file-encrypting viruses sneak into the targeted PCs with the help of spam emails. These mails pretend to be from some reputable institutions or companies but they often include vicious files or website link for spiteful file. The attached files could be in multiple formats such as PDF or Microsoft Office documents, archive files like RAR, ZIP, JavaScript files, executable files (like .exe) files.  As soon as users open, run or execute the attachment, the infection process begins.

And hence, to avoid the risk of being infected with a crypto-virus, it is necessary to ignore suspicious emails that you often receive from unknown sender as you never know what they are containing. In case your PC is already infected with this crypto-threat, you must remove Acuff ransomware from the system without wasting any time.

Text Presented In The Pop-up Window:

All your files have been encrypted!

Your PC has been infected by a ransomware. If you want to restore them, contact the following address below.

E – Mail contact – [email protected] / [email protected]

Write this ID in the title of your message –

Free decryption as guarantee

Before paying you can send us up to 5 files for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 4Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)

Where to buy bitcoins?

The easiest way to buy bitcoins is LocalBitcoins site. You have to register, click ‘Buy bitcoins’, and select the seller by payment method and price.

https://localbitcoins.com/buy_bitcoins

Also you can find other places to buy Bitcoins and beginners guide here:

http://www.coindesk.com/information/how-can-i-buy-bitcoins/

Attention!

NEVER RENAME ENCRYPTED FILES THIS MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR FILES PERMANENTLY

Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.

Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

Text Presented In The Ransom Note:

Your PC has been infected by a ransomware.  If you want to restore them, contact the following address below.

E – Mail contact – [email protected] / [email protected]

NEVER RENAME ENCRYPTED FILES THIS MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR FILES PERMANENTLY

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

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

Step 2: Delete Acuff ransomware using “System Restore”

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

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