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

The Pro virus belongs to the Xorist ransomware family. Malware of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (images, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its specific extension to every file, leaving the HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt text files in every folder with the encrypted files.

What is Pro virus?

☝️ A scientifically accurate designation for the Pro would be “a Xorist family ransomware-type infection”.

Pro appends its specific .PrO extension to the title of each encrypted file. For example, a file named “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.PrO”. Just like the Excel table named “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.PrO”, and so on.

In each folder with the encrypted files, a HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt file will be created. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information on the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is how they do it.

Pro Overview:

In the image below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Pro looks like. Each filename has the “.PrO” extension appended to it.

How did Pro ransomware end up on my PC?

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

There are currently three most popular methods for malefactors to have ransomware acting in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer networks.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan horse model. A Trojan is a program that gets into your machine disguised as something else. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you need or an update for some service. However, what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that encodes your data. Since the update file can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal thing is to trust the software companies’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent or eMule, the threat 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 a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.

How do I get rid of the Pro virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Pro virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your machine to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Sometimes racketeers would decrypt several of your files to prove that they indeed have the decryption program. As Pro virus is a relatively new ransomware, security software engineers have not yet found a method to undo its work. However, the decryption tools are constantly updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the evildoers succeed in encoding someone’s essential files, the desperate person will most likely comply with their demands. Nevertheless, paying to racketeers gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of criminals just vanishing after getting the money without even writing back.

The optimal countermeasure to 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 drive. Obviously, that might be not enough. The most important thing could be that one you were working on when it all started. But at least it is something. It is also wise to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the OS restoration.

There are other ransomware products, besides Pro, that work similarly. For instance, Agpo, Gayn, Tgvv, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Pro are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: files become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky victims were able to decode the arrested files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly send the decryption code to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an extraordinary fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But of course, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a tamperers’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How do I avoid ransomware attack?

Pro ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.

You can protect yourself from its attack taking several easy steps:

• Never open any letters 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 participating in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, check all elements of the suspicious letter with caution. A fake letter will surely have a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as a part of cracked products, possibly under the guise of “patch” preventing the license check. But untrusted programs are difficult to tell from reliable software, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.

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 “.PrO” files?Is it possible to open“.PrO” files?

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.PrO” files are decrypted.

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

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. All other solutions require time.

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

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Some of the blocked files can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to post 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 drives might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, mobile, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery utilities⁴ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the virus with an anti-malware program.

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