Remove DarkSide ransomware And Restore Encrypted Files

Simple Steps To Delete DarkSide ransomware

DarkSide ransomware is another hazardous file-encrypting virus that encrypts the files using a strong encryption algorithm makes them totally useless. It was first discovered by MalwareHunterTeam and has infected a number of Windows computers in a very short period of time. The sole purpose of the hackers behind such toxic attack is to make people unable to get access to their important files and documents and then demand an amount of ransom to regain access to those data. The threat can get further if the virus manages to access system folders, crucial system settings and make changes there.

More About DarkSide ransomware:

DarkSide ransomware triggers the encryption by using sophisticated cryptography that allows the criminals to alter the original code of an image, archive file, database, audio, video etc. This precarious crypto-malware renames the infected files by appending victims’ ID as an extension with each of them as suffix. After completing the encryption process, it leaves a ransom note titled “README.[victim’s_ID].TXT” on each folder that contains the infected files and informs victims regarding the attack. The text file states that all victims’ important files have been encrypted and to restore them, they must purchase the decryption software from DarkSide ransomware authors.

You are warned that all your data will be published on a certain website if you fail to make the payment (purchase decryption software) and stored on it for at least 6 months. You will have to access the Tor website through the provided link to get the instructions on how to pay a ransom and other details like price of a decryption software. It is very likely that criminals behind this ransomware target large companies, organizations because their decryption software cost 194.105 BTC plus 10% of this amount) or 23220.713 XMR.

Text Presented In The Ransom Note:

———– [ Welcome to Dark ] ————->

What happend?

———————————————-

Your computers and servers are encrypted, backups are deleted. We use strong encryption algorithms, so you cannot decrypt your data.

But you can restore everything by purchasing a special program from us – universal decryptor. This program will restore all your network.

Follow our instructions below and you will recover all your data.

Data leak

———————————————-

First of all we have uploaded more then 100 GB data.

Example of data:

 – Accounting data

 – Executive data

 – Sales data

 – Customer Support data

 – Marketing data

 – Quality data

 – And more other…

Your personal leak page: hxxp://darksidedxcftmqa.onion/blog/article/id/6/ dQDclB_6Kg-c-6fJesONyHoaKh9BtI8j9Wkw2inG8O72jWaOcKbrxMWbPfKrUbHC

The data is preloaded and will be automatically published if you do not pay.

After publication, your data will be available for at least 6 months on our tor cdn servers.

We are ready:

– To provide you the evidence of stolen data

– To give you universal decrypting tool for all encrypted files.

– To delete all the stolen data.

What guarantees?

———————————————-

We value our reputation. If we do not do our work and liabilities, nobody will pay us. This is not in our interests.

All our decryption software is perfectly tested and will decrypt your data. We will also provide support in case of problems.

We guarantee to decrypt one file for free. Go to the site and contact us.

How to get access on website?

———————————————-

Using a TOR browser:

1) Download and install TOR browser from this site: hxxps://torproject.org/

2) Open our website: hxxp://darksidfqzcuhtk2.onion/ K71D6P88YTX04R3ISCJZHMD5IYV55V9247QHJY0HJYUXX68H2P05XPRIR5SP2U68

When you open our website, put the following data in the input form:

Key:

–

!!! DANGER !!!

DO NOT MODIFY or try to RECOVER any files yourself. We WILL NOT be able to RESTORE them.

!!! DANGER !!!

Should You Pay The Ransom?

Victims are urged to buy the required decryptor within 3 days, otherwise its price will be doubled (it will cost 388.209 Bitcoins plus 10% of this amount or 46441.426 Moneros). Whatever the circumstance might be, you should never consider dealing with the hackers as they will never decode your files even after taking the money. It has been tendency of such criminals that they often ignore the victims once the payment is made and cause them to lose both files as well as money. The vets thing can do here is to perform DarkSide ransomware removal from the work-station as soon as possible and then find any other ways to recover the locked data. For this, you can try a powerful file-recovery application or if you have a recently made backup, you can easily retrieve them back.

Threat Summary

Name: DarkSide ransomware

Type: Ransomware, Crypto-virus

Short Description: Dangerous parasite that locks users’ important files and then asks them to pay the attackers a sum of ransom to get the decryption software.

Extension: Victim’s ID

Ransom demanding message: README.[victim’s_ID].TXT, Tor website

Ransom Amount- 194.105 BTC (+10%)/388.209 BTC (+10%) or 23220.713 XMR/46441.426 XMR

Attackers’ Contact: Tor website

Symptoms: Victims cannot open files stored on their computers, earlier 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.

Infiltration of DarkSide ransomware:

You cannot know when the crypto-virus managed to enter your device because ransomware as any other more severe piece of malware can stealthily penetrate the machine and cause modifications, launch malevolent processes. The infection gets triggered by the users themselves because macro viruses get added on files that only need to be opened on the computer.

The more common way to spread this version of the ransomware is focusing on pirating platforms, torrent sites, and files that can spread during the installation and downloads of licensed versions of software, game cheats. You need to stay away from anything suspicious and illegal, so you can avoid infections like these. Experts always note that there are many issues with pirating services, so do not get involved. But in case you are already infected with this parasite, you are strongly recommended to remove DarkSide ransomware from the machine without wasting any time.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

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

Step 2: Delete DarkSide ransomware using “System Restore”

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

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