PRESTIGE Ransomware 🔐 (.ENC File) — Removal Guide

The Prestige virus belongs under the ransomware type of malicious agent. A harmful program of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, leaving the README.txt text files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.

What is known about the Prestigevirus?

☝️ A strictly accurate denomination for the Prestige is “a ransomware malicious agent”.

Prestige adds its extra .enc extension to every file’s name. For example, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.enc”. Likewise, the Excel file with the name “table.xlsx” will become “table.xlsx.enc”, and so forth.

In each directory containing the encoded files, a README.txt file will be created. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is basically the scheme of the crime.

Prestige overview:

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

How did my machine catch Prestige ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most popular ways for criminals to have ransomware acting in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and 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 strange to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a malicious file attached to them. Therefore, it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrent trackers or eMule, the threat 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Prestige virus?

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

Often racketeers would decode few of your files so you know that they really have the decryption program. Since Prestige virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software developers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. However, the decoding instruments are constantly upgraded, so the solution may soon be available.

Sure thing, if the malefactors succeed in encrypting victim’s essential data, the hopeless person will most likely fulfill their demands. However, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your files back. It is still risky. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about hackers simply vanishing after getting the money without even writing back.

The best countermeasure to ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud drive or at least on an external disk. Obviously, that might be not enough. The most important thing could be that file you were working upon when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also advisable to scan your drives with the anti-malware utility after the system is rolled back.

Prestige 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, Tury, Adlg, Tuow, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Prestige are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: documents become blocked, their extensions altered, ransom notes appear in every folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky users were able to decrypt the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-malware experts. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decryption code to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But naturally, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a tamperers’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.

How do I avoid ransomware injection?

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

You can protect your system from ransomware infiltration in 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 money prize draw without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the questionable letter with caution. A fake letter will surely have a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often spreaded as an element of cracked products, most likely under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy software, as trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.

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”.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 How can I open “.enc” files?Can I somehow access “.enc” files?

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

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

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. The rest of the methods require patience.

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

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the encoded files might still be at your disposal

• If you sent or received your important files via email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared images 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 Web, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a portable device, phone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use file recovery programs⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, 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 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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