SCKMEDADY Virus Files of Ransomware — How to remove virus?

The Sckmedady virus belongs to the ransomware type of infection. Harmful software of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the PC (images, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, leaving the Read-Me.txt text files in every folder with the encrypted files.

What is known about the Sckmedadyvirus?

☝️ A strictly correct designation for the Sckmedady would be “a ransomware infection”.

The scheme of renaming is the following: id-*******.[email address].sckmedady. In the process of encryption, a file entitled, for instance, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.id-31708BC1E.[[email protected]].sckmedady”.

In every folder with the encrypted files, a Read-Me.txt notebook document will be found. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is it.

Sckmedady abstract:

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

How did my machine catch Sckmedady ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most popular methods for criminals to have the Sckmedady virus settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer networks.

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

As for the peer file transfer protocols like BitTorrent or eMule, the danger is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never guess 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 antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Sckmedady virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Sckmedady virus will probably deploy the Azorult Spyware on your computer to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware² can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Sometimes tamperers would decode few of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption program. Since Sckmedady virus is a relatively new ransomware, anti-malware engineers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware instruments are constantly upgraded, so the solution may soon arrive.

Of course, if the criminals do the job of encrypting someone’s essential files, the hopeless person will most likely fulfill their demands. Despite that, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of hackers simply vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The optimal solution against 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 drive. Obviously, that might be insufficient. The most crucial thing could be that file you were working upon when it all happened. 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.

There are other ransomware products, besides Sckmedady, that work similarly. For instance, Time, C1024, Bom, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Sckmedady are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become encoded, their extensions changed, ransom notes are found in every directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate victims were able to decrypt the arrested files with the help of the free software provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ tool to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avert ransomware attack?

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

You can armour your system from its attack in three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are expecting, check all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A fake letter will surely have mistakes.
• Do not use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as an element of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are difficult to distinguish from reliable ones, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try searching for information on this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such software.

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”.

FAQ

🤔 Are the “.id-*******.[email address].sckmedady” files accessible?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.id-*******.[email address].sckmedady” 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. All other solutions require time.

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

🤔 What can I do 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 might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, cellphone, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can employ data recovery utilities⁵ to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but remember: you can do it only after you remove 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.

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