CIP Virus (.CIP Files of Ransomware) — [email protected]

The Cip virus falls under the Dharma ransomware family. A harmful program of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, leaving the info.txt files in each folder with the encrypted files.

What is Cip?

☝️ A strictly accurate denomination for the Cip is “a Dharma family ransomware malicious agent”.

The renaming will be executed according to this pattern: cip. During the encryption, a file named, for example, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.id-C279F237.[[email protected]].cip”.

In each directory with the encrypted files, a info.txt file will be created. 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 buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting [email protected], [email protected] by email. That is it.

Cip abstract:

The info.txt document coming in package with the Cip ransomware provides the following dispiriting information:

all your data has been locked us
You want to return?
write email [email protected] or [email protected]

In the screenshot below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Cip looks like. Each filename has the “.cip” extension appended to it.

How did my machine catch Cip ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most exploited ways for criminals to have ransomware acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a harmful item attached to them. Therefore, it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the peer file transfer protocols like BitTorrent or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never know what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove the Cip virus?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Cip virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware³ can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often criminals would decode some of your files to prove that they indeed have the decryption program. As Cip virus is relatively recent ransomware, safety measures designers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. However, the decoding instruments are frequently upgraded, so the solution may soon be available.

Understandably, if the evildoers do the job of encrypting someone’s essential files, the hopeless person will probably comply with their demands. Nevertheless, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your data back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may deliver the wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of racketeers simply disappearing after getting the money without even writing back.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud drive or at least on an external storage. Obviously, that might be not enough. The most crucial thing could be that one you were working upon when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also advisable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.

Cip 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 Xcmb, Dehd, Zaqi, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Cip are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: files become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in every directory containing encoded files.

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

How to avoid ransomware infection?

Cip ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can defend your computer from its injection in several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious letter carefully. A hoax letter will surely have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted software. Trojan viruses are often spread as a part of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. But potentially dangerous programs are very hard to tell from trustworthy software, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try searching for information about this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such programs at all.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft⁴

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

🤔 Is it possible to open “.cip” files?

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

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

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. Otherwise, you might try to employ System Restore. The only question is whether you have saved any Restore Points that would be helpful now. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 What actions should I take if the Cip ransomware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be within your reach

• If you sent or received your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a portable device, cellphone, memory stick, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ data recovery utilities⁶ to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you can do it only after you remove the virus 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.

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