COV Ransomware 🔐 (.COV File) — Removal Guide

The Cov virus belongs to the Xorist ransomware family. A harmful program of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file, leaving the HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt files in each folder containing encrypted files.

What is Cov virus?

☝️ Cov is a Xorist family ransomware-type virus.

Cov will append its own .CoV extension to every file’s title. For example, a file named “photo.jpg” will be altered to “photo.jpg.CoV”. Just like the Excel table named “table.xlsx” will become “table.xlsx.CoV”, and so on.

In every directory containing the encrypted files, a HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt file will be created. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this decryptor after contacting [email protected] by email. That is how they do it.

Cov Summary:

The HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt file coming in package with the Cov malware provides the following dispiriting information:

Hello,

All your important files are encrypted
if you want to decrypt them you have to pay me 0.03 bitcoin


Make sure you send 0.03 bitcoin to this address:
bc1qvxl7lc9kehsh3y3m2aatekpyjs8pd2zx3j34dx

If you do not own bitcoins, buy from here:
www.paxful.com
You can find a larger list here:
hxxps://bitcoin.org/en/exchanges

After sending the bitcoin, contact me at this email addresses:
[email protected] or [email protected]
with this subject: -

After payment confirmation, I will send you your server keys and decryptor to decrypt your files automatically.

You will also receive information on how to resolve your security issue to avoid becoming a victim of ransomware again.

From this moment you have 3 days to contact me to make the payment, otherwise I will delete the keys, and be sure that no one will be able to decrypt your files without the original keys, you can try but you will lose your time and your files.

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

How did my computer get infected with Cov ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

Nowadays, there are three most popular ways for tamperers to have ransomware planted in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer networks.

• If you access your inbox and see emails that look just like notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a malware item attached to them. Therefore, it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with emails like these.
• Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan virus scheme. A Trojan is an object that gets into your computer pretending to be something different. For instance, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some software. But what is unboxed reveals itself a harmful program that compromises your data. As the update wizard can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the files you’re downloading. The best thing is to trust the software developers’ official websites.
• As for the peer file transfer protocols like torrent trackers 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 resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How to remove ransomware?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Cov virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your computer to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

How сan I avoid ransomware injection?

Cov ransomware has no endless power, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour your system from ransomware injection in several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, check all elements of the suspicious email carefully. A hoax letter will always have a mistake.
• Never use cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as an element of cracked software, most likely as a “patch” which prevents the license check. But dubious programs are very hard to tell from reliable ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try searching for information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.CoV” 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. Otherwise, you might try to employ System Restore. The only question is whether you have saved any Restore Points that would be helpful now. The rest of the methods require patience.

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

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the blocked files might still be within your reach

• If you sent or received your critical 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 drives 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 employ data recovery programs² to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the video below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you eradicate the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.