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

Virus analyst Amigo-A was the person who, for the first time, recognized the Cooper virus, which belongs to the ransomware type of malicious agent. Ransomware of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, creating the Cooper_Recover.txt text files in every directory containing encrypted files.

Cooper virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A strictly correct description for the Cooper would be “a ransomware infection”.

Cooper will append its specific .Cooper extension to the name of each encoded file. For example, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be renamed to “photo.jpg.Cooper”. Just like the Excel table with the name “table.xlsx” will be altered to “table.xlsx.Cooper”, and so on.

In every folder that contains the encrypted files, a Cooper_Recover.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this tool after contacting [email protected], [email protected] via email. That is it.

Cooper overview:

The Cooper_Recover.txt document coming in package with the Cooper malware provides the following dispiriting information:

Cooper Ransomware V2
Your ID: 999106C0F4B***
We are the only ones that own the decryption software. After you run it on your system, all of your data will be recovered and everything will be back to normal as if nothing had happened. 
As a result, we advise you to contact us at the following Email addresses and buy the decryption software RIGHT NOW:
[email protected]
[email protected]
** You Must Include Your ID in the Subject line of Your Email, Otherwise We WILL NOT ANSWER....

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

How did my computer get infected with Cooper ransomware?

There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most exploited ways for hackers to have the Cooper virus working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer networks.

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

As for the peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent or eMule, the danger 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. Our suggestion is that you use 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 Cooper virus?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Cooper virus will probably deploy the Azorult Spyware on your computer to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware² can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often criminals would decrypt few of your files so you know that they really have the decryption program. Since Cooper virus is a relatively new ransomware, safety measures engineers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware tools are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Understandably, if the evildoers do the job of encoding someone’s essential data, the desperate person will most likely fulfill their demands. Despite that, paying a ransom gives no guarantee that you’re getting your data back. It is still dangerous. After obtaining the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of ransomware developers just disappearing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The best countermeasure to 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. Surely, that might be not enough. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon 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 system restoration.

Cooper is not the only ransomware of its kind, since there are other specimens of ransomware out there that act in the same manner. For instance, Nitz, Nifr, Niwm, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Cooper are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: files become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate victims were able to decrypt the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-malware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary 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 criminals’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infiltration?

Cooper ransomware has no superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can protect your computer from its infiltration within three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailers with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the questionable letter with caution. A hoax letter will always have a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as an element of cracked software, most likely as a “patch” to prevent the license check. But dubious programs are difficult to distinguish from reliable ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. Try searching for information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such software.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft³

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 “.Cooper” files?Is it possible to open“.Cooper” files?

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

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

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the blocked files might still be within your reach

• If you exchanged your important files via 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 downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a portable device, mobile, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can employ data recovery programs⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you kill 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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