MONO Virus File 🔐 BAKUTOMONO@TUTA.IO — How to Remove?

The Mono virus belongs under the Dharma ransomware family. A harmful program of this type encrypts all user’s data on the PC (images, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the info.txt files in each directory with the encrypted files.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.

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Mono virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A strictly accurate description for the Mono would be “a Dharma family ransomware malicious agent”.

The renaming will be done according to this scheme: .[bakutomono@tuta.io].mono. As a part of encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.id-491AA5EF.[bakutomono@tuta.io].mono”.

In every directory with the encoded files, a info.txt text document will appear. It is a ransom money note. It contains information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting bakutomono@tuta.io, kabukimono@msgsafe.io by email. That is how they do it.

Mono overview:

The info.txt file coming in package with the Mono ransomware provides the following frustrating information:

All your files have been encrypted!
Don\'t worry, you can return all your files!
If you want to restore them, write to the mail: bakutomono@tuta.io YOUR ID 1E857D00
If you have not answered by mail within 12 hours, write to us by another mail:kabukimono@msgsafe.io
Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 3 files for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 3Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)
How to obtain Bitcoins

Also you can find other places to buy Bitcoins and beginners guide here:
hxxp://www.coindesk.com/information/how-can-i-buy-bitcoins/
Attention!
Do not rename encrypted files.
Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

In the image below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Mono looks like. Each filename has the “.[bakutomono@tuta.io].mono” extension added to it.

An example of encrypted .[bakutomono@tuta.io].mono files.

How did Mono ransomware end up on my PC?

There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for evil-doers to have the Mono virus acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is strange to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a harmful file attached to them. Thus it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan horse model. A Trojan is an object that gets into your PC disguised as something else. For example, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some service. However, what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful agent that compromises your data. Since the update file can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the files you’re downloading. The best way is to trust the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrents or eMule, the danger is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never know what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove the Mono virus?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Mono virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your computer to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Sometimes criminals would decrypt few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption tool. Since Mono virus is a relatively new ransomware, safety measures developers have not yet found a way to undo its work. However, the anti-ransomware instruments are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Of course, if the hackers succeed in encoding victim’s essential data, the hopeless person will probably comply with their demands. Despite that, paying a ransom gives no guarantee that you’re getting your data back. It is still risky. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption key to the victim. There were reports about ransomware developers just vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The optimal safety measure against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external drive. Of course, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon when it all happened. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also advisable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the system is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Mono, that work similarly. For instance, Gatz, Xaro, Xatz, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Mono are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes are found in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate users were able to decrypt the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the criminals accidentally send the decryption key to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the victim to restore the files. But of course, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infiltration?

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

You can armour your system from ransomware injection within three easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the questionable email with caution. A hoax letter will surely have mistakes.
• Never use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often shared as an element of cracked software, most likely under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to tell from reliable ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information on this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.
• And to be sure about the safety of the objects you downloaded, use GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This software will be a perfect armor for your personal computer.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft²

There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft³.

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 computer.

An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click “Yes” 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 Mono 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 “Clean Now” button in right corner.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 Are the “.[bakutomono@tuta.io].mono” files accessible?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.[bakutomono@tuta.io].mono” files first. Then you will be able to open them.

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

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. 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.

🤔 If GridinSoft deletes the Mono malware, will it also delete my files that were encrypted?

No way! Your encrypted files are no threat to your PC.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware only deals with actual threats. The malware that has infected your PC is most likely still active and running scans every so often to encode any new files you might create on your computer after the attack. As it has been said above, the Mono malware comes with the company. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide criminals with easy access to your computer in the future.

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

In such an unfortunate situation, you need to have a flash memory card with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to perform the cleaning. The point is that the ransomware runs automatically as the system launches and encodes any new files created or imported into your system. To suppress this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital programs to run automatically. Consider reading our manual on running Windows in Safe Mode.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be within your reach

• If you sent or received your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to give those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Web, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a portable device, phone, memory stick, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ file recovery programs⁴ to get your lost data back since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the virus 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 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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