KING Ransomware ([email protected])

The King virus belongs under the ransomware type of infection. A harmful program of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (photos, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, leaving the #Read-for-recovery.txt files in every folder containing encrypted files.

King virus: what is known so far?

The renaming will be done by the following pattern: .king. After the encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.[[email protected]].king”.

In every directory that contains the encrypted files, a #Read-for-recovery.txt text document will be created. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this decrypting software after contacting [email protected], [email protected] via email. That is pretty much the scheme of the crime.

King Summary:

The #Read-for-recovery.txt document accompanying the King ransomware provides the following dispiriting information:

Email 1:
[email protected]

Email 2:
[email protected]

Send messages to both emails at the same time

So send messages to our emails, check your spam folder every few hours

ID: -

If you do not receive a response from us after 24 hours, create a valid email, for example, gmail,outlook
Then send us a message with a new email

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

How did King ransomware end up on my PC?

There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most exploited ways for hackers to have ransomware working in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer file transfer.

• If you open your mailbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a malware item attached to them. So it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with letters like these.
• Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus model. A Trojan is a program that gets into your computer disguised as something else. For instance, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some software. However, what is unboxed reveals itself a harmful agent that corrupts your data. As the update package can have any title and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the things you’re downloading. The best thing is to use the software companies’ official websites.
• As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never guess what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove ransomware?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the King virus will probably install Vidar Stealer on your computer to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

How сan I avert ransomware infection?

King ransomware has no superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can defend your PC from ransomware injection taking several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (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 expecting, scrutinize all elements of the dubious email with caution. A hoax email will surely have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked software, most likely under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are difficult to distinguish from reliable ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information about this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the best solution is not to use such programs at all.

FAQ

🤔 Are the “.king” files accessible?

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

🤔 What should I do to make my files accessible as fast as possible?

If the “.king” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. 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 King virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the encrypted files can be found elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a laptop, mobile, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can use file recovery programs¹ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can see 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 anti-malware program.

1. Here are Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2024.