AASIVUM Virus 🔐 (.AASIVUM Files) — How to Remove?

The Aasivum virus belongs with the ransomware type of malicious agent. A harmful program of this type encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file.

Aasivum virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A scientifically correct designation for the Aasivum is “a ransomware-type infection”.

Aasivum adds its extra .aasivum extension to the name of every encoded file. For instance, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.aasivum”. In the same manner, the Excel file with the name “table.xlsx” will be renamed to “table.xlsx.aasivum”, and so on.

The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the ransomware developers. That is basically the scheme of the crime.

Aasivum abstract:

In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Aasivum looks like. Each filename has the “.aasivum” extension added to it.

How did my machine catch Aasivum ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

Nowadays, there are three most exploited ways for evil-doers to have the Aasivum virus working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer file transfer.

If you open your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a viral file attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file scheme. A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your computer disguised as something legal. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some service. But what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that encrypts your data. As the installation package can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The best way is to use the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never guess what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.

How do I get rid of the Aasivum virus?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Aasivum virus will most likely deploy Vidar Stealer on your PC to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Sometimes racketeers would unblock several of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption tool. As Aasivum virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures engineers have not yet found a way to undo its work. However, the decryption tools are constantly updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Of course, if the malefactors succeed in encoding someone’s critical data, the desperate person will most likely fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying to criminals does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After receiving the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports of criminals simply vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The optimal safety measure against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external disk. Surely, that might be insufficient. The most important thing could be that one you were working on when it all started. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.

Aasivum is not the only ransomware of its kind, since there are other specimens of ransomware out there that act in the same manner. Examples of those are Nifr, Boty, Niwm, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Aasivum are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: files become encrypted, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky victims were able to decode the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-malware specialists. Sometimes the criminals mistakenly send the decryption code to the victims in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the user to restore the files. But naturally, one should never expect such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How сan I avoid ransomware attack?

Aasivum ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour your PC from ransomware injection within several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailboxes with unknown addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the questionable letter carefully. A fake email will surely have a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as a part of cracked software, most likely as a “patch” which prevents the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to tell from trustworthy ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such programs at all.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft¹

Download Removal Tool.

Run the setup file.

Press “Install” button.

Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.

Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.

Click on “Clean Now”.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 How can I open “.aasivum” files?Is it possible to open“.aasivum” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.aasivum” files you will not be able to access them.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.aasivum” files ASAP. How can I do that?

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What should I do if the Aasivum ransomware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the blocked files can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your critical files via email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, phone, flash memory, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use data recovery programs³ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you can do it only after you remove the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

Also, you can contact the following official fraud and scam sites to report this attack:

• In the United States: On Guard Online;
• In Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre;
• In the United Kingdom: Action Fraud;
• In Australia: SCAMwatch;
• In New Zealand: Consumer Affairs Scams;
• In France: Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information;
• In Germany: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik;
• In Ireland: An Garda Síochána;

To report the attack, you can contact local executive boards. For instance, if you live in USA, you can have a talk with FBI Local field office, IC3 or Secret Service.

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