Remove .help (Dharma) Ransomware And Restore Encrypted Files

Easy Steps To Delete .help (Dharma) Ransomware

.help (Dharma) Ransomware is a type of destructive computer malware that belongs to the family of Dharma ransomware. Once this hazardous crypto-threat successfully infiltrates the Windows devices, it encrypts important files and documents stored inside the machine, and then asks victims to pay the criminals an amount of ransom to get the decryption software. It uses a very powerful encryption algorithm to lock videos, audios, pictures, spreadsheets, presentations etc. and makes them completely inaccessible or unusable. During the encryption, it renames the compromised data on this pattern: filename, victims’ unique ID, attackers’ email address and the “.help” extension.

Depth Analysis of .help (Dharma) Ransomware:

Following successful encryption, .help (Dharma) Ransomware exhibits couple of ransom notes in a pop-up window and “FILES ENCRYPTED.txt” text file and informs users regarding the attack. Victims are asked to contact the hackers via the provided email address. At the end, you might have to transfer a huge amount of ransom money to attackers’ BitCoins account. Victims are also warned not to rename the locked files or try to decrypt them using third-party tools, otherwise it may lead to permanent data loss.

Should You Pay The Ransom?

Whatever the circumstance might be, you are highly advised to not make any sort of payment to .help (Dharma) Ransomware authors. Remember that the only objective of such crooks is to extort illicit money from the victimized users. You should not trust these people as you have absolutely no guarantee they will provide you the functional decryptor even if the ransom is paid. Moreover, there are chances that criminals will deliver bogus software in the name of decryption tool in the name of decryption tool. So, avoid dealing with such people.

What Should The Victims Do?

If you are an affected person, the first thing you need to do here is to perform .help (Dharma) Ransomware removal from the work-station as early as possible. For data recovery, you should use Volume Shadows Copies (temporary backup made by Operating System). Nonetheless, crypto-viruses have tendency to delete the Shadow Volume. If this is the case here, then use alternative methods such as backups created on any external drive or a powerful file-recovery application. Be very cautious while choosing a recovery program as scammers may try to deceive you into installing rogue software.

Threat Details 

Name: .help (Dharma) Ransomware

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

Short Description: Hazardous parasite which encrypts users’ essential files and then asks them to pay the attackers an amount of ransom to get the decryption software/key.

Extension:  .help (Locked files are also appended with a unique ID and attackers’ email address)

Ransom Demanding Notes: Text presented in the pop-up window and FILES ENCRYPTED.txt

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

Symptoms: Infected files become inaccessible and useless stored inside the infected PCs, 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.

Penetration of .help (Dharma) Ransomware:

Ransomware programs are most often proliferated via spam campaigns. During such campaign, thousands of phishing emails are sent by cyber hackers that are disguised as “urgent”, “official”, “priority”, “important” etc. However, they often contain malicious files or download links of such files. The attached files could be in multiple formats such as executables (.exe, .run, etc.), archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), Microsoft Office and PDF documents, JavaScript, etc. As soon as the infectious files are opened, run or executed, the infection process initiates.

And therefore, to avoid the risk of being infected with file-encrypting viruses, never open emails and download their suspicious attachments that you receive from unknown senders. Such mails are specially designed in a way that they can trick recipients into opening them and executing their attachment. In case your PC is already infected with this hazardous threat, you must remove .help (Dharma) Ransomware from the work-station as early as possible.

Text Presented In The Pop-up Window:

YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED

Don’t worry,you can return all your files!

If you want to restore them, follow this link:email [email protected] YOUR ID –

If you have not been answered via the link within 12 hours, write to us by e-mail:[email protected]

Attention!

Do not rename encrypted files.

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 “FILES ENCRYPTED.txt” File:

all your data has been locked us

You want to return?

write email [email protected] or [email protected]

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

Step 1: Remove .help (Dharma) Ransomware through “Safe Mode with Networking”

Step 2: Delete .help (Dharma) Ransomware using “System Restore”

Step 1: Remove .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) Ransomware using “System Restore”

Log-in to the account infected with .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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 .help (Dharma) 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.