JIANGLOCKER Virus 🔐 (.JIANG Files) — How to Remove?

The Jianglocker virus belongs with the ransomware type of infection. Malware of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, creating the read.ini text files in each directory containing encrypted files.

What is Jianglocker virus?

☝️ A scientifically accurate designation for the Jianglocker is “a ransomware-type malicious agent”.

Jianglocker will append its extra .jiang extension to every file’s name. For instance, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.jiang”. Likewise, the Excel sheet with the name “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.jiang”, and so on.

In every directory that contains the encrypted files, a read.ini text file will appear. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find 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 tamperers. That is basically the scheme of the crime.

Jianglocker outline:

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

How did my machine catch Jianglocker ransomware?

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

There are currently three most popular methods for hackers to have ransomware acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you open your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is strange to you, beware of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a ransomware file enclosed in them. So it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the peer networks 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 reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Jianglocker virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Jianglocker virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Sometimes criminals would decrypt few of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption program. Since Jianglocker virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software developers have not yet found a way to undo its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware instruments are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Of course, if the evildoers succeed in encrypting victim’s essential data, the hopeless person will most likely comply with their demands. Despite that, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After getting the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports about ransomware developers just disappearing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external disk. Obviously, that might be insufficient. The most crucial thing could be that one you were working on when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also wise to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the system restoration.

Jianglocker 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, Mmvb, Eewt, Oflg, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Jianglocker are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: files become blocked, their extensions altered, ransom notes are created in every folder containing encoded files.

Some lucky people were able to decode the arrested files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly send the decoding key to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the victim to restore the files. But of course, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How do I avert ransomware infection?

Jianglocker ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour your system from ransomware 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 expecting (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious letter carefully. A fake email will surely contain a mistake.
• Never use cracked or untrusted software. Trojans are often shared as a part of cracked products, possibly under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to tell from reliable software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft²

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

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

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.jiang” files are decrypted.

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

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 What actions should I take if the Jianglocker virus has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the encrypted files can be located elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your critical files by 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 send those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud disks might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, mobile, memory stick, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery programs⁴ to get your lost data back since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you can do it only after you kill the ransomware itself 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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