CYBERPUNK Ransomware 🔐 (.CYBER File) — Removal Guide

The Cyberpunk virus falls within the Dharma ransomware family. Malware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, leaving the CYBER.txt text files in every directory which contains the encrypted files.

What is known about the Cyberpunkvirus?

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

The renaming will be executed by this pattern: id-xxxxxx.[contact_email].CYBER. As a part of encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.id-9ECFA84E.[[email protected]].CYBER”.

In every folder containing the encoded files, a CYBER.txt text file will appear. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting [email protected] through email. That is pretty much the scheme of the felony.

Cyberpunk summary:

The CYBER.txt file coming in package with the Cyberpunk malware provides the following discouraging information:

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

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

How did my machine catch Cyberpunk ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most popular ways for evil-doers to have the Cyberpunk virus settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer-to-peer networks.

If you open your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a ransomware file attached to them. Thus it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like BitTorrent 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 a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove the Cyberpunk virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Cyberpunk virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware³ can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often racketeers would decrypt some of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption program. As Cyberpunk virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware designers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decryption instruments are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Understandably, if the tamperers succeed in encoding someone’s critical data, the desperate person will most likely comply with their demands. However, paying to criminals does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your data back. It is still risky. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about ransomware developers just vanishing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The best safety measure against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud storage or at least on an external storage. Obviously, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon when it all went down. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the system is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Cyberpunk, that work similarly. Examples of those are Oflg, Ofww, Aawt, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Cyberpunk are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each folder containing encoded files.

Some lucky victims were able to decrypt the arrested files with the help of the free software provided by anti-ransomware experts. Sometimes the criminals mistakenly send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the user to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ tool to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infection?

Cyberpunk ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can protect yourself from its injection within three easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (how can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, check all elements of the suspicious letter with caution. A fake email will always have a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often spreaded as a part of cracked products, most likely under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. But dubious programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such software.

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

🤔 Are the “.CYBER” files accessible?

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

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.CYBER” files ASAP. How can I do that?

If the “.CYBER” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. 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 actions should I take if the Cyberpunk virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the encoded files might still be at your disposal

• If you sent or received your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to give 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 media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, phone, flash memory, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ data recovery utilities⁶ to get your lost data back since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you can do it only after 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.

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