HAVOC Virus Ransomware [[email protected]] Removal

The Havoc virus belongs under the ransomware type of malicious agent. Malware of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, documents, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the FILES ENCRYPTED.txt text files in every folder which contains the encrypted files.

Havoc virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A strictly accurate description for the Havoc would be “a ransomware infection”.

The renaming will be executed by this pattern: .havoc. In the process of encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be changed to “report.docx.EMAIL=[[email protected]]ID=[9B1D5A0BEE53F14E].havoc”.

In each folder with the encrypted files, a FILES ENCRYPTED.txt text document will be found. It is a ransom money note. It contains information on the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the Havoc developers. You can obtain this decoding tool after contacting [email protected], [email protected] through email. That is how they do it.

Havoc outline:

The FILES ENCRYPTED.txt document coming in package with the Havoc ransomware provides the following discouraging information:

ATTENTION!
At the moment, your system is not protected.
We can fix itand restore files.
To get started, send a file to decrypt trial.
You can trust us after opening the test file.
To restore the system write to both : [email protected]             and        [email protected]
Your Decryption ID: -

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

How did my computer get infected with Havoc ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

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

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model. A Trojan is a program that gets into your PC pretending to be something else. For instance, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some software. But what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful program that compromises your data. As the installation file 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 optimal way is to trust the software companies’ official websites.

As for the peer networks like torrents 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Havoc virus?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Havoc virus will probably install Vidar Stealer on your PC to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often tamperers would decrypt some of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption tool. As Havoc virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software designers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. However, the decoding instruments are frequently updated, so the solution may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the criminals do the job of encoding someone’s critical data, the desperate person will most likely fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying to criminals gives no guarantee that you’re getting your files back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption key to the victim. There were reports about hackers just vanishing after getting the money without even writing back.

The optimal safety measure against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud storage or at least on an external drive. Surely, that might be not enough. Your most important thing could be that file you were working upon when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also wise to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS restoration.

There are other ransomware products, besides Havoc, that work similarly. For instance, Ahgr, Ahtw, Bhui, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Havoc are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: documents become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes appear in every folder containing encoded files.

Some fortunate people were able to decode the arrested files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decryption key to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But of course, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a tamperers’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.

How do I avert ransomware injection?

Havoc ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour your computer from its infiltration within several easy steps:

• Ignore any letters from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, check all elements of the dubious letter with caution. A fake letter will surely have mistakes.
• Do not use cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as an element of cracked products, most likely under the guise of “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are difficult to tell from trustworthy software, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try searching for information on 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 GridinSoft¹

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

🤔 Are the “.havoc” files accessible?

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

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

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. All other solutions require time.

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

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be at your disposal

• If you sent or received your critical files via email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to post those images back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, mobile, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery programs³ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the ransomware itself with an antivirus 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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