JUDGE Virus Files of Ransomware — How to remove virus?

The Judge virus belongs to the ransomware type infection. This ransomware encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc), adds its specific extension to every file, and creates the info.txt files in every folder which contains encrypted files.

Judge Virus

☝️ Judge can be correctly identify as a ransomware infection.

Judge adds its specific “.[[email protected]].judge” extension to the name of every file. For example, your photo named as “my_photo.jpeg” will be transformed into “my_photo.jpeg.[[email protected]].judge“, report in Excel tables named “report.xlsx” – to “report.xlsx.[[email protected]].judge“, and so on.

info.txt file, which can be found in every folder that contains the encrypted files, is a ransom money note. Inside of it, you can find information about ways of contacting Judge ransomware developers, and some other info. Inside of the ransom note, there is usually an instruction saying about purchasing the decryption tool. This decryption tool is created by ransomware developers, and can be obtained through the email, contacting [email protected].

Here is a summary for the Judge:

The info.txt file by the Judge ransomware states the following frustrating information:

If you access this page so your device has been encrypted.
Many of your documents, photos, videos, databases and other files are no longer accessible because they have been encrypted, Maybe you are busy looking for a way to recover your files, but do not waste your time. NOBODY can recover your files without our decryption service.
How Recover My Files?
Sure, We guarantee that you can recover all your files safely and easily, But you have not so enough time,
After the end of the specified time, which is listed below, the price will be raised to double the specified amount
Speed is required, We will close all our accounts after a certain period, so you will never be able to retrieve your files if u late.
How To Pay?
Only one payment is accepted (Bitcoin)
Please check the current price of Bitcoin and buy some bitcoins
And send the correct amount to the address
After payment
After you send the specified amount to the Bitcoin wallet immediately,
click on Contact Us and send us an email with the ID of your device and the transfer number for the bitcoins
---------------------------------------------
YOUR DEVICE ID: admin_703E6FEDDC9B
BTC Address: 1M3EDJdQtPNY5t2nHAeRTgQRFDu2U6QNCG
BTC Price: 100$
E-Mail: [email protected]
Telegram: @judgebackup
---------------------------------------------
What happened to my device?
If you access this page so your device has been encrypted.
Many of your documents, photos, videos, databases and other files are no longer
accessible because they have been encrypted, Maybe you are busy looking for a way to recover
your files, but do not waste your time. NOBODY can recover your files without our decryption service.
How Recover My Files?
Sure, We guarantee that you can recover all your files safely and easily, But you have not so enough time,
After the end of the specified time, which is listed below, the price will be raised to double the specified amount
Speed is required, We will close all our accounts after a certain period, so you will never be able to retrieve your files if u late.
How To Pay?
Only one payment is accepted (Bitcoin)
Please check the current price of Bitcoin and buy some bitcoins
And send the correct amount to the address
After payment
After you send the specified amount to the Bitcoin wallet immediately,
click on Contact Us and send us an email with the ID of your device and the transfer number for the bitcoins

The image below gives a clear vision of how the files with “.[[email protected]].judge” extension look like:

Example of encrypted .[[email protected]].judge files

How did I get Judge ransomware on my computer?

That was a huge number of different ways of ransomware injection.

However, nowadays there are only two ways of Judge injection – email spam and trojans. You may see a lot of messages on your email, stating that you need to pay different bills or to get your parcel from the local FedEx department. But all such messages are sent from unknown email addresses, not from familiar official emails of these companies. All such letters contain the attached file, which is used as a ransomware carrier. If you open this file – your system will get infected by Judge.

In case of trojans presence, you will be offered to download and install ransomware on your PC under the guise of something legit, like a Chrome update, or update for the software you are storing on your computer. Sometimes, trojan viruses can be masked as legit programs, and ransomware will be offered for download as an important update, or a big pack of extensions which are essential for proper program functioning.

There is also the third way of ransomware injection, however, it becomes less and less popular day-to-day. I am talking about peering networks, such as torrents or eMule. No one can control which files are packed in the seeding, so you can discover a huge pack of different malware after downloading. If circumstances force you to download something from peering networks – scan every downloaded folder or archive with antivirus software.

How to remove Judge virus?

In addition to encode a victim’s files, the Judge infection has also started to install the Azorult Spyware on system to steal account credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, desktop files, and more.

To ensure the user that ransomware distributors really have the decryption tool, they may offer to decrypt several encrypted files. And they are the single owners of this decryption program: Judge ransomware is a completely new type, so there is no legit program from anti-malware vendors, which can decrypt your files. But such a situation is in momentum: decryption tools are updating every month.

However, paying the ransom is a bad decision, too. There is no guarantee that Judge ransomware developers will send you the decryption tool and a proper decryption key. And there are a lot of cases when ransomware distributors deceived their victims, sending the wrong key or even nothing. In the majority of cases, there is a way to recover your files for free. Search for available backups, and restore your system using it. Of course, there is a chance that the backup you found is too old, and does not contain a lot of files you need. But, at least you will be sure that there is no malware in your system. However, to ensure that there are no malicious programs in your system after the backup, you need to scan your PC with anti-malware software.

Judge ransomware is not unique. There are more ransomware of this type: Aol, 14x, Solaso. These examples of ransomware act in a similar way: encrypting your files, adding a specific extension, and leaving a great number of ransom money notes in every folder. But there are two things which make difference between these ransomware – cryptography algorithm, which is used for file encryption, and ransom amount ($100). In some cases, victims are able to decrypt their files without any payments, just using free solutions produced by several anti-malware vendors, or even with the decryption tool which is offered by ransomware creators. The last scenario is possible when ransomware distributors have typed your decryption key inside of a ransom money note. However, as you can already guess, such luck is a very rare thing. Ransomware is created for money gaining, not for jokes or scaring.

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

How сan I avoid ransomware attack?

Judge ransomware doesn’t have a superpower.

You can easily protect yourself from its injection in several easy steps :

• Ignore all emails from unknown mailboxes with a strange unknown address, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (can you win in a lottery without taking part in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check carefully all elements of the suspicious letter. A fake email will surely contain a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked software, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try to find information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such programs.