LOOCIPHER Ransomware 🔐 (.LCPHR File) — Removal Guide

The Loocipher virus falls under the ransomware type of malicious agent. Ransomware of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (photos, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the @Please_Read_Me.txt text files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.

What is known about the Loociphervirus?

☝️ A strictly correct description for the Loocipher is “a ransomware malicious agent”.

Loocipher appends its extra .lcphr extension to the name of every encoded file. For instance, a file named “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.lcphr”. Just like the Excel sheet with the name “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.lcphr”, and so on.

In every directory containing the encoded files, a @Please_Read_Me.txt file will be created. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the ransomware developers. That is it.

Loocipher abstract:

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

How did my computer get infected with Loocipher ransomware?

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

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for malefactors to have the Loocipher virus working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your mailbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a harmful item attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the 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 items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove the Loocipher virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Loocipher virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware² can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often criminals would unblock several of your files to prove that they really have the decryption tool. As Loocipher virus is a relatively new ransomware, security software developers have not yet found a method to undo its work. However, the decoding tools are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Understandably, if the criminals succeed in encoding someone’s essential files, the desperate person will probably fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After receiving the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports of hackers simply vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud storage or at least on an external storage. Obviously, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working on when it all started. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your drives with the anti-malware utility after the system is rolled back.

Loocipher 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, Oflg, Ofww, Towz, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Loocipher are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: files become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky people were able to decode the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decryption code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ instrument to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How do I avoid ransomware injection?

Loocipher ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can protect yourself from ransomware injection within three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (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, check all elements of the suspicious letter carefully. A hoax email will always have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown software. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” to prevent the license check. But potentially dangerous programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information about this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such software.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft³

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 “.lcphr” files?Are the “.lcphr” files accessible?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.lcphr” files first. Then you will be able to open them.

🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?

If the “.lcphr” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 What should I do if the Loocipher malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be at your disposal

• If you exchanged your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to post those pictures 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 computer, a notebook, phone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use data recovery programs⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

Also, you can contact the following official 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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