How To Remove WastedLocker Ransomware And Restore Encrypted Files

Tips To Delete WastedLocker Ransomware

WastedLocker Ransomware is another precarious data-locking virus which tends to encrypt users’ essential files and documents stored inside their systems and extort huge amount of ransom money from them. It mainly targets PCs running on Windows operating systems and is capable of infecting all versions of Windows OS. So, doesn’t matter if you are using Vista, Server, Me, XP, NT, 7, 8/8.1 or the most recent one Win 10, you can still be a victim of this hazardous ransomware. Similar to other notorious threats of same category, it is also mainly spread via spam emails that include malicious attachments.

More About WastedLocker Ransomware:

As soon as WastedLocker Ransomware infiltrates your computer, it instantly uses a powerful cryptography to encrypt your crucial files and makes them completely inaccessible. This pernicious malware is able to infect almost all kinds of data such as videos, audios, images, spreadsheets, documents, PDFs, databases and many more. Such files can be easily identified as it appends its own extension with each of them as suffix. After completing the encryption process, it delivers a ransom note on victims’ screen and informs them regarding the attack. It also instructs them to pay an amount of ransom to the criminals in order to get the decryption tool and open the infected files.

The note displayed by WastedLocker Ransomware also includes an email address in order to contact the hackers and get more details. You are asked to make the payment as soon as possible otherwise the decryptor will be deleted from the server and hence, recovery of files is not possible after that. The ransom amount may vary from $200 to $1500 that has to be paid in BitCoins or any other digital currency. To prove that the decryption is possible, hackers may also offer to decode two or three files for free.

Should You Deal With The Criminals?

If you are a victim of WastedLocker Ransomware and all your crucial files and documents have been locked by this parasite, the big question here for you is, does it make sense to pay the attackers? The answer is simple- victims should never fulfill crooks’ demands should not even try contacting them. Reports say, people who pay the demanded extortion money to such vicious criminals do not receive the promised decryption software. Paying ransom doesn’t guarantee that the compromised files will return back to their original condition. And therefore, you should never make any sort of payment to the hackers no matter what situation is. The first thing you need to do here is to remove WastedLocker Ransomware from the PC immediately before it infects your other vital data.

How To Recover The Infected Files?

As far as restoring the infected files is concerned, you should use a backup made on any external drive. The problem here is that not all users have proper backups so in such situation; the only option left for you is to use a strong data-recovery program which you can download right here via the link provided under this article. Additionally, you should keep making frequent backups by the help of which, you can easily retrieve the compromised data.

Primary Methods of Ransomware Intrusion:

These ransomware programs mostly rely on rookie users who do not pay much attention to details and skip through steps. Criminals send spam emails and some people tend to read all these mails and download files attached to the content. This behavior however leads to infections and payload dropper activities. Hackers pretend to send genuine files, invoices or other documents in order to make users click on links or download spiteful macro-filled MS documents. Furthermore, precarious macro viruses trigger the content that can install trojan or worm which further installs ransomware itself straightaway. Criminals inject these script on Microsoft files like word documents disguised as financial documents, invoice details, order information and attach to emails with popular company names that deceive users into believing that notification is from them directly.

Once any of these methods get used and trigger the drop of the crypto-virus payload, the computer gets infected right away, so when you can’t notice or stop the parasite, you are going to see ransom demands after the encryption. Make sure to keep your PC up-to-date and use reliable anti-malware programs to detect the virus at the earlier stages and avoid any questionable emails with links or file attachments, coming from unknown sender.

Threat Summary

Name: WastedLocker Ransomware

Type: Ransomware, Crypto-virus

Description– Dangerous virus which encrypts users’ essential files and then forces them to pay huge amount of ransom money from them

Symptoms: Victims can not open files stored on their computer, 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: Torrent websites, 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.

Other Malevolent Traits of WastedLocker Ransomware:

Apart from locking your essential data, WastedLocker Ransomware also creates tons of junk files in the hard drive of your machine which consumes huge amount of memory resources and drags down the overall PC performance severely. Due to this, machine starts responding slower than ever before and takes more than usual time to complete any task. It messes with important system files which assure efficient computer functioning and prevents many installed apps as well as drivers from working normally. This nasty malware brings several other pernicious issues in the work-station such as frequent system crash, boot errors, application malfunctioning, hard drive failure and so on. And therefore, it is necessary to remove WastedLocker Ransomware from the device quickly.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows

Click Here For Mac

Step 1: Remove WastedLocker Ransomware through “Safe Mode with Networking”

Step 2: Delete WastedLocker Ransomware using “System Restore”

Step 1: Remove WastedLocker 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 WastedLocker Ransomware using “System Restore”

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