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

The Attacksystem virus falls under the MedusaLocker ransomware family. Harmful software of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (images, documents, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and adds its specific extension to every file, creating the How_to_back_files.html files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.

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What is Attacksystem virus?

☝️ A strictly correct description for the Attacksystem is “a MedusaLocker family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

Attacksystem adds its specific .attacksystem extension to every file’s name. For instance, an image named “photo.jpg” will be renamed to “photo.jpg.attacksystem”. In the same manner, the Excel table with the name “table.xlsx” will be changed to “table.xlsx.attacksystem”, and so forth.

In every folder that contains the encrypted files, a How_to_back_files.html text document will appear. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this decoding tool after contacting [email protected] via email. That is basically the scheme of the felony.

Attacksystem abstract:

The How_to_back_files.html file accompanying the Attacksystem malware states the following:

YOUR PERSONAL ID:
-
/!\\ YOUR COMPANY NETWORK HAS BEEN PENETRATED /!\\
All your important files have been encrypted!


Your files are safe! Only modified. (RSA+AES)


ANY ATTEMPT TO RESTORE YOUR FILES WITH THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
WILL PERMANENTLY CORRUPT IT.
DO NOT MODIFY ENCRYPTED FILES.
DO NOT RENAME ENCRYPTED FILES.


No software available on internet can help you. We are the only ones able to
solve your problem.

 

We gathered highly confidential/personal data. These data are currently stored on
a private server. This server will be immediately destroyed after your payment.
If you decide to not pay, we will release your data to public or re-seller.
So you can expect your data to be publicly available in the near future..


We only seek money and our goal is not to damage your reputation or prevent
your business from running.


You will can send us 2-3 non-important files and we will decrypt it for free
to prove we are able to give your files back.


Contact us for price and get decryption software.

 

email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
* To contact us, create a new free email account on the site: protonmail.com
IF YOU DON\'T CONTACT US WITHIN 72 HOURS, PRICE WILL BE HIGHER.

In the image below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Attacksystem looks like. Each filename has the “.attacksystem” extension appended to it.

That is how encrypted “.attacksystem” files look.

How did my computer get infected with Attacksystem ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

Nowadays, there are three most exploited methods for evil-doers to have the Attacksystem virus acting in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer networks.

If you access your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a harmful item 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 a program that infiltrates into your PC pretending to be something legal. For example, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some program. But what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that corrupts your data. As the update wizard can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The optimal thing is to trust the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the danger 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. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove the Attacksystem virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Attacksystem virus will probably install Vidar Stealer on your machine to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often tamperers would decrypt few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption program. Since Attacksystem virus is a relatively new ransomware, anti-malware developers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. However, the anti-ransomware tools are constantly updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Of course, if the hackers do the job of encrypting victim’s essential data, the desperate person will most likely comply with 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 ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about criminals just disappearing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

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

There are other ransomware products, besides Attacksystem, that work similarly. Examples of those are Coty, Foza, Coza, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Attacksystem are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: documents become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes are created in every directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate victims were able to decrypt the arrested files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the user to restore the files. But obviously, one should never expect such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ technology to pull the money out of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infection?

Attacksystem ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can armour your computer from ransomware attack in several easy steps:

• Ignore any letters from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the dubious email carefully. A hoax letter will surely contain a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or unknown software. Trojans are often distributed as an element of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are very hard to tell from reliable ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.
• And to be sure about the safety of the files you downloaded, use GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This program will be a powerful armor for your system.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft²

There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft³.

Download Removal Tool.

You can download GridinSoft Anti-Malware by clicking the button below:

Run the setup file.

When setup file has finished downloading, double-click on the setup-antimalware-fix.exe file to install GridinSoft Anti-Malware on your PC.

An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation.

Press “Install” button.

Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.

Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware will automatically start scanning your PC for Attacksystem infections and other malicious programs. This process can take a 20-30 minutes, so I suggest you periodically check on the status of the scan process.

Click on “Clean Now”.

When the scan has finished, you will see the list of infections that GridinSoft Anti-Malware has detected. To remove them click on the “Clean Now” button in right corner.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

🤔 What should I do to make my files accessible as fast as possible?

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 You have advised using GridinSoft Anti-Malware to get rid of the Attacksystem virus. Does it mean that all my files, currently encrypted, will be removed too?

Absolutely not! The encrypted files are not harmful, so they won’t be deleted.

With the help of GridinSoft Anti-Malware, you can clean your system off the actual threats. The ransomware that has infiltrated your PC is must be still active and running scans from time to time to encode any new files you might create on your PC after the attack. As it has been said above, the Attacksystem malware comes with the company. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can take your account passwords by trespass and provide hackers with easy access to your system in the future.

🤔 What should I do if the Attacksystem virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

If that happened, you need to prepare a flash memory drive with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to do the cleaning. You see, the ransomware runs automatically as the system boots and encodes any new files created or brought into your machine. To block this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the essential programs to run automatically. Consider reading our manual on booting Windows in Safe Mode.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the blocked data can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud drives might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a portable device, cellphone, external storage, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ data recovery utilities⁴ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you eradicate the ransomware itself with an anti-malware program.

Also, you can contact the following governmental 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.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review from HowToFix site: https://howtofix.guide/gridinsoft-anti-malware/
3. More information about GridinSoft products: https://gridinsoft.com/comparison
4. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.