MMXXII Virus 🔐 (.MMXXII Files) — How to Remove?

The Mmxxii virus belongs to the Phobos ransomware family. Ransomware of this type encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and adds its specific extension to every file, leaving the info.txt text files in every directory with the encrypted files.

What is Mmxxii virus?

☝️ A strictly accurate denomination for the Mmxxii would be “a Phobos family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

The renaming will be done by this scheme: id[xxxxxx].[contact_email].MMXXII. In the process of encryption, a file named, for example, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.id[9ECFA84E-3378].[[email protected]].MMXXII”.

In each directory that contains the encoded files, a info.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the ransomware developers. You can obtain this decoding tool after contacting [email protected] by email. That is basically the scheme of the felony.

Mmxxii overview:

The info.txt document coming in package with the Mmxxii malware provides the following frustrating information:

!!!All of your files are encrypted!!!
To decrypt them send e-mail to this address: [email protected].
If we don\'t answer in 24h., send e-mail to this address: [email protected] 

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

How did my machine catch Mmxxii ransomware?

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

There are currently three most exploited ways for hackers to have the Mmxxii virus working in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer networks.

If you open your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is strange to you, beware of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a malicious item attached to them. So it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrent trackers or eMule, the danger 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 resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How do I get rid of the Mmxxii virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Mmxxii virus will probably deploy the Azorult Spyware on your PC to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often racketeers would unblock several of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption tool. Since Mmxxii virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software designers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware instruments are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Of course, if the evildoers succeed in encoding victim’s essential data, the hopeless person will probably fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying to criminals gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After obtaining the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports about hackers simply disappearing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The best solution against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external storage. Of course, that might be insufficient. Your most important thing could be that one you were working on when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also advisable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Mmxxii, that work similarly. For instance, Eewt, Aawt, Mmdt, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Mmxxii are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: files become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes are found in each directory containing encoded files.

Some lucky victims were able to decrypt the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly 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 rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.

How сan I avoid ransomware infiltration?

Mmxxii ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can defend your computer from ransomware infiltration taking several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the dubious email with caution. A hoax email will surely contain mistakes.
• Do not use 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. But dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this software product 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

🤔 Can I somehow access “.MMXXII” files?

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

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

It’s good if you have fаr-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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

🤔 What to do if the Mmxxii ransomware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Some of the blocked files can be found elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to give those images back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, cellphone, flash memory, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery utilities⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you remove 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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