PROFESSOR Ransomware (.professor Files) — How to remove virus?

The Professor virus belongs under the VoidCrypt ransomware family. Harmful software of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, leaving the !INFO.HTA text files in every directory with the encrypted files.

What is known about the Professorvirus?

☝️ A strictly correct designation for the Professor is “a VoidCrypt family ransomware malicious agent”.

The renaming will be executed according to this pattern: id-*******.[email address].professor. After the encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be turned into “report.docx.id-3018FBL138F.[[email protected]]”.

In each folder with the encoded files, a !INFO.HTA file will be created. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this tool after contacting [email protected] through email. That is how they do it.

Professor outline:

In the picture below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Professor looks like. Each filename has the “.id-*******.[email address].professor” extension added to it.

How did my machine catch Professor ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most popular methods for hackers to have the Professor virus planted in your system. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer file transfer.

If you access your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is strange to you, beware of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a malware file enclosed in them. Therefore, it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with letters like these.

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 guess what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How to remove the Professor virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Professor virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware³ can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often tamperers would decrypt few of your files to prove that they indeed have the decryption program. As Professor virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures designers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decryption instruments are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Of course, if the hackers succeed in encrypting victim’s essential files, the desperate person will most likely comply with their demands. However, paying to criminals does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your files back. It is still dangerous. After obtaining the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of ransomware developers just disappearing after getting the ransom 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 disk. Surely, that might be not enough. Your most important thing could be that file you were working on when it all went down. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also wise to scan your drives with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Professor, that work similarly. For instance, Bbbw, Maiv, Cuag, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Professor are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in every directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate users were able to decode the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding key to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But obviously, one should never expect such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a bandits’ instrument to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How сan I avoid ransomware infiltration?

Professor ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour your computer from its injection within several easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious letter carefully. A fake email will surely have a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted software. Trojan viruses are often spreaded as a part of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” preventing the license check. But dubious programs are very hard to tell from trustworthy ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try searching for information on this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft⁴

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

🤔 Is it possible to open “.id-*******.[email address].professor” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.id-*******.[email address].professor” files you will not be able to access them.

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

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.

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

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the encrypted files can be found elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a laptop, mobile, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use file recovery utilities⁶ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you can do it only after you eradicate 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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