The Jron virus falls within the Dharma ransomware family. A harmful program of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (photos, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and adds its specific extension to every file, creating the info.txt files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.
What is known about the Jronvirus?
โ๏ธ A strictly accurate designation for the Jron would be “a Dharma family ransomware malicious agent”.
The renaming will be executed according to this scheme: id-xxxxx.[contact-email].jron. In the course of encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be changed to “report.docx.id-9ECFA84E.[jerd@420blaze.it].jron”.
In every directory that contains the encrypted files, a info.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money note. 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 tamperers. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting jerd@420blaze.it via email. That is pretty much the scheme of the felony.
Jron outline:
| Name | Jron Virus |
| Ransomware family1 | Dharma ransomware |
| Extension | .jron |
| Ransomware note | info.txt |
| Contact | jerd@420blaze.it |
| Detection | Crytex.Virus.FileInfector.DDS, Win32/Filecoder.OLC, Malware-Cryptor.InstallCore.5 |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) get a .jron extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Jron virus |
The info.txt file accompanying the Jron malware states the following:
You want to return? write email jerd@420blaze.it or roneast@tuta.io or ronrivest@airmail.cc or ronivest@tutanota.com
In the screenshot below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Jron looks like. Each filename has the “.jron” extension appended to it.
That is how encrypted “.jron” files look.
How did my computer get infected with Jron ransomware?
There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.
Nowadays, there are three most exploited methods for tamperers to have ransomware planted in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer networks.
If you open your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a malware file attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with emails like these.
Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model2. A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your computer disguised as something else. For example, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some service. But what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful program that encodes your data. Since the installation package can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the files you’re downloading. The optimal way is to trust the software developers’ official websites.
As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the danger 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 websites. Also, it is a good idea 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 Jron virus?
It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Jron virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware on your computer to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware3 can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.
Often racketeers would decrypt few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption program. As Jron virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software developers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decryption tools are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.
Sure thing, if the malefactors do the job of encoding someone’s critical files, the hopeless person will probably comply with their demands. Despite that, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption key to the victim. There were reports of racketeers simply vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.
The optimal solution against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external storage. Obviously, that might be not enough. The most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon when it all started. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the system restoration.
Jron is not the only ransomware of its kind, since there are other specimens of ransomware out there that act in the same manner. Examples of those are Hhoo, Vvmm, Hhee, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Jron are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: documents become blocked, their extensions changed, ransom notes are found in each directory containing encoded files.
Some fortunate users were able to decode the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-malware experts. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decoding code to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the victim to restore the files. But obviously, 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 avoid ransomware infiltration?
Jron ransomware has no superpower, so as any similar malware.
You can defend yourself from its injection within several easy steps:
- Never open any emails from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the questionable letter carefully. A fake email will always contain mistakes.
- Never use cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as a part of cracked products, possibly as a โpatchโ preventing the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. Try to find information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.
- And to be sure about the safety of the objects you downloaded, scan them with GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This program will be a perfect defense for your PC.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft4
There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft5.
Download Removal Tool.
You can download GridinSoft Anti-Malware by clicking the button below:
Run the setup file.
When setup file has finished downloading, double-click on the setup-antimalware-fix.exe file to install GridinSoft Anti-Malware on your PC.
An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click โYesโ to continue with the installation.
Press “Install” button.
Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.
Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will automatically start scanning your computer for Jron infections and other malicious programs. This process can take a 20-30 minutes, so I suggest you periodically check on the status of the scan process.
Click on “Clean Now”.
When the scan has finished, you will see the list of infections that GridinSoft Anti-Malware has detected. To remove them click on the โClean Nowโ button in right corner.
FAQ
๐ค Are the “.jron” files accessible?
Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.jron” files you will not be able to access them.
๐ค I really need to decrypt those โ.jronโ files ASAP. How can I do that?
It’s good if you have fะฐr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. 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.
๐ค You have advised using GridinSoft Anti-Malware to get rid of the Jron virus. Does it mean that all my files, currently encrypted, will be removed too?
No way! Your encrypted files are no threat to your PC.
With the help of GridinSoft Anti-Malware, you can clean your computer off the actual threats. The ransomware that has infected your device is probably still active and running scans periodically to arrest any new files you might create on your PC after the initial attack. As it has already been said, the Jron ransomware comes with the company. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide hackers with easy access to your system in the future.
๐ค What actions should I take if the Jron virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.
In such a case, you need to have a flash memory drive with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to do the cleaning. The point is that the ransomware starts automatically as the system launches and encrypts any new files created or imported into your machine. To block this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital programs to run automatically. Consider reading our manual on running Windows in Safe Mode.
๐ค What could help the situation right 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 may have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to post those images back to you.
- If you have initially got any of your files from the Web, you can try downloading them again.
- Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
- Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, phone, memory stick, etc.
HINT: You can employ file recovery utilities6 to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, deleting the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, 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 sรฉcuritรฉ des systรจmes d’information;
- In Germany: Bundesamt fรผr Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik;
- In Ireland: An Garda Sรญochรกna;
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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Brendan SmithHow to Remove JRON Ransomware & Recover PC
Name: JRON Virus
Description: JRON Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .jron extension. So, you can't use them at all.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Virus
User Review
( votes)References
- My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
- You can read more on Trojans, their use and types in the Trojan-dedicated section of GridinSoft official website.
- You can read more on spyware variants and nature in the respective section of GridinSoft official website.
- GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review from HowToFix site: https://howtofix.guide/gridinsoft-anti-malware/
- More information about GridinSoft products: https://gridinsoft.com/comparison
- Here are Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.
