GOT Ransomware 🔐 (.GOT File) — Removal Guide

The Got virus belongs to the Xorist ransomware family. Ransomware of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt files in each folder with the encrypted files.

What is Got virus?

☝️ Got is a Xorist family ransomware-type infection.

Got will append its extra .Got extension to the title of each encoded file. For instance, an image named “photo.jpg” will be altered to “photo.jpg.Got”. Just like the Excel file named “table.xlsx” will be changed to “table.xlsx.Got”, and so on.

In each directory containing the encrypted files, a HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt file will appear. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the Got developers. You can get this decrypting software after contacting [email protected] via email. That is it.

Got Overview:

The HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt file accompanying the Got malware provides the following discouraging information:

Hello


All your files have been encrypted
if you want to decrypt them you have to pay me 0.04 bitcoin.


Make sure you send the 0.04 bitcoins to this address:
bc1qygn239pmpswtge00x60ultpp6wymht64ggf5mk


If you don\'t own bitcoin, you can easily buy it from these sites:
www.coinmama.com
www.bitpanda.com
www.localbitcoins.com
www.paxful.com


You can find a larger list here:
hxxps://bitcoin.org/en/exchanges


After sending the bitcoin, contact me at this email address:
[email protected] or [email protected]
with this subject: -
After the payment has been confirmed,
you will get decryptor and decryption keys!


You will also receive information on how to defend against another ransomware attack
and the most important thing is your security hole through which we entered.


Attention!
Do not try other cheaper decryption options because nobody and nothing can
decrypt your files without the keys generated for your server,
you will lose time, money and your files forever!

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

How did Got ransomware end up on my PC?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

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

• Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus model. A Trojan is an object that infiltrates into your PC pretending to be something different. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you need or an update for some program. However, what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful agent that encodes your data. Since the installation file can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The optimal thing is to use the software developers’ official websites.
• As for the peer-to-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 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 files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of ransomware?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your data, the Got virus will most likely install Vidar Stealer on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

How to avoid ransomware infiltration?

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

You can protect your system from ransomware attack taking several easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown mailers with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, check all elements of the dubious letter carefully. A hoax email will surely contain mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” to prevent the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are difficult to tell from reliable ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.

FAQ

🤔 How can I open “.Got” files?Are the “.Got” files accessible?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.Got” files first. Then you will be able to open 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. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. The rest of the methods require patience.

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

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the blocked files can be found elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to give those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a notebook, mobile, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery utilities² to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you can do it only after you remove the ransomware itself with an anti-malware program.

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