ANTONI Ransomware 🔐 (.ANTONI File) — Removal Guide

The Antoni virus belongs to the ransomware type of infection. Malware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the computer (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the Antoni_Recovery.txt files in every directory which contains the encrypted files.

Antoni virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A scientifically accurate designation for the Antoni would be “a ransomware malicious agent”.

Antoni will append its extra .Antoni extension to every file’s title. For instance, a file entitled “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.Antoni”. Just like the Excel table with the name “table.xlsx” will be changed to “table.xlsx.Antoni”, and so on.

In every folder that contains the encoded files, a Antoni_Recovery.txt text file will be created. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the Antoni developers. You can get this tool after contacting [email protected], [email protected] via email. That is basically the scheme of the malefaction.

Antoni outline:

The Antoni_Recovery.txt document accompanying the Antoni malware provides the following frustrating information:

YOURWHOLE NETWORK HAS BEEN PENETRATED BY Antoni!


As you can see we have penetrated your whole network due some critical network insecurities
All of your files such as documents, dbs and... Are encrypted and we have uploaded many important data from your machines,
and believe we us we know what we should collect.

 

However you can get your files back and make sure your data is safe from leaking by contacting us using following details :

 

PrimaryEmail   :  [email protected]
SecondaryEmail :  [email protected]

 

Your machine Id : -
use this as the title of your email


(Remember, if we don\'t hear from you for a while, we will start leaking data)

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

How did my computer get infected with Antoni ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most exploited methods for tamperers to have the Antoni virus settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer file transfer.

If you access your mailbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, beware of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a malicious file attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan virus model. A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your machine disguised as something else. For instance, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some program. However, what is unpacked reveals itself a harmful program that corrupts your data. As the update package can have any title and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal way is to trust the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never guess what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is complete.

How to remove the Antoni virus?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Antoni virus will probably install Vidar Stealer on your machine to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often racketeers would decrypt few of your files to prove that they do have the decryption tool. As Antoni virus is a relatively new ransomware, anti-malware engineers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. However, the anti-ransomware tools are frequently updated, so the solution may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the malefactors succeed in encoding victim’s critical data, the desperate person will probably fulfill their demands. However, paying to criminals does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your files back. It is still risky. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption key to the victim. There were reports about ransomware developers just disappearing after getting the money without even writing back.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud storage or at least on an external drive. Of course, that might be insufficient. The most important thing could be that file you were working upon when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the system is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Antoni, that work similarly. For instance, Coty, Foza, Boza, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Antoni are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: files become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate people were able to decode the arrested files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware experts. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decoding key to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the user to restore the files. But of course, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a bandits’ instrument to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avert ransomware injection?

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

You can armour your computer from ransomware infiltration taking three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the questionable letter with caution. A fake email will surely have a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often spreaded as an element of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are difficult to tell from reliable software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. Try to find information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution 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”.

FAQ

🤔 How can I open “.Antoni” files?Can I somehow access “.Antoni” files?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.Antoni” files first. Then you will be able to open them.

🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. 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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 What to do if the Antoni virus has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be at your disposal

• If you exchanged your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to post those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud disks might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a portable device, phone, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can use data recovery programs³ to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the authentic ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the ransomware itself with an anti-malware 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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