MURK Files (MURK Ransomware) — How to remove virus?

The Murk virus belongs under the Phobos ransomware family. Malware of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, leaving the info.txt text files in each directory which contains 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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What is known about the Murk virus?

☝️ A scientifically correct denomination for the Murk is “a Phobos family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

The renaming will be executed by this scheme: [victim’s_ID].[email_address].MURK. In the course of encryption, a file entitled, for instance, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.id[9ECFA84E-3308].[24recovery@onionmail.org].MURK”.

In each directory containing the encoded files, a info.txt file will appear. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the ransomware developers. You can obtain this decoding tool after contacting 24recovery@onionmail.org via email. That is it.

Murk overview:

The info.txt document accompanying the Murk ransomware states the following:

All your files have been encrypted!
All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC. If you want to restore them, write us to the e-mail 24recovery@onionmail.org
Write this ID in the title of your message -
In case of no answer in 24 hours write us to this e-mail:24recovery@msgsafe.io
You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. The price depends on how fast you write to us. After payment we will send you the tool that will decrypt all your files.
Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 5 files for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 4Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)
How to obtain Bitcoins
The easiest way to buy bitcoins is LocalBitcoins site. You have to register, click \'Buy bitcoins\', and select the seller by payment method and price.
hxxps://localbitcoins.com/buy_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 picture below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Murk looks like. Each filename has the “.[victim\’s_ID].[email_address].MURK” extension appended to it.

An example of encrypted .[victim\’s_ID].[email_address].MURK files.

How did my computer get infected with Murk ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most popular ways for evil-doers to have the Murk virus settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer networks.

If you access your inbox and see emails that look just like notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is strange to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a ransomware file enclosed in them. Thus it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan virus model². A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your machine pretending to be something legal. For instance, you download an installer of some program you need or an update for some program. But what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that encrypts your data. Since the installation file can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the files you’re downloading. The optimal way is to use the software companies’ official websites.

As for the 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded objects with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is complete.

How do I get rid of the Murk virus?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Murk virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your machine to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware³ can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often tamperers would unblock few of your files to prove that they really have the decryption program. As Murk virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware developers have not yet found a way to undo its work. However, the anti-ransomware tools are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the malefactors succeed in encrypting someone’s essential data, the desperate person will probably comply with their demands. Nevertheless, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your files back. It is still risky. After getting the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of ransomware developers just disappearing after getting the money without even writing back.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external storage. Surely, that might be not enough. 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 PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the system restoration.

Murk is not the only ransomware of its kind, since there are other specimens of ransomware out there that act in the same manner. Examples of those are Maiv, Ccps, Yoqs, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Murk are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: documents become blocked, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in every folder containing encoded files.

Some lucky people were able to decrypt the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the criminals mistakenly send the decoding key to the victims in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the user to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a bandits’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.

How to avert ransomware infiltration?

Murk ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, so as any similar malware.

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

• Never open any emails from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, check all elements of the questionable email carefully. A hoax letter will surely have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often shared as an element of cracked products, possibly under the guise of “patch” preventing the license check. But potentially dangerous programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try searching for information on this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.
• And to be sure about the safety of the files you downloaded, scan them with GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This program will be a perfect defense for your PC.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft⁴

There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft⁵.

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 system for Murk 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 completed, 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

🤔 Is it possible to open “.[victim\’s_ID].[email_address].MURK” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.[victim\’s_ID].[email_address].MURK” files you will not be able to access them.

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

If the “.[victim\’s_ID].[email_address].MURK” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. 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 Murk malware, will it also delete my files that were encrypted?

Absolutely not! Your encrypted files are no threat to your PC.

With the help of GridinSoft Anti-Malware, you can clean your computer off the actual viruses. The virus that has attacked your device is must be still functional and launching checks periodically to encrypt any new files you might create on your computer after the initial attack. As it has been said above, the Murk malware does not come alone. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide criminals with easy access to your system in the future.

🤔 What actions should I take if the Murk ransomware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.

If that happened, you need to prepare a flash memory drive with a pre-installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to perform the cleaning. The point is that the ransomware starts automatically as the system boots and encodes any new files created or imported into your machine. To block this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital applications to run upon system boot. Consider reading our manual on running Windows in Safe Mode.

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the blocked files might still be at your disposal

• If you sent or received your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud drives might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a portable device, cellphone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can employ data recovery programs⁶ to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you can do it only after you kill the virus 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.

How to Remove MURK Ransomware & Recover PC

Name: MURK Virus

Description: MURK Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .[victim's_ID].[email_address].MURK extension. So, you can't use them at all.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Virus

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