The Secureagent virus falls within the ransomware type of malicious agent. A harmful program of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, showing the pop-up window with ransom note when the process is over.
What is known about the Secureagentvirus?
☝️ A scientifically correct denomination for the Secureagent would be “a ransomware malicious agent”.
Secureagent will add its own .secured extension to every file’s title. For example, a file entitled “photo.jpg” will be altered to “photo.jpg.secured”. Just like the Excel file with the name “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.secured”, and so forth.
After the encryption process is over, a pop-up window will appear on the screen. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information on the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is it.
Secureagent outline:
| Name | Secureagent Virus |
| Extension | .secured |
| Ransomware note | pop-up window |
| Detection | Crytex.Virus.FileInfector.DDS, Win32/Filecoder.OLC, Malware-Cryptor.InstallCore.5 |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .secured extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Secureagent virus |
In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Secureagent looks like. Each filename has the “.secured” extension appended to it.
That is how encrypted “.secured” files look.
How did my machine catch Secureagent ransomware?
There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.
There are currently three most popular methods for criminals to have ransomware settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer-to-peer networks.
If you open your mailbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a viral item attached to them. Therefore, it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with letters like these.
Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model1. A Trojan is a program that gets into your PC pretending to be something else. For instance, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some software. However, what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful program that compromises your data. Since the update package can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The best thing is to trust the software developers’ official websites.
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 know what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is complete.
How to remove the Secureagent virus?
It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Secureagent virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your computer to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware2 can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.
Sometimes racketeers would unblock some of your files so you know that they do have the decryption tool. Since Secureagent virus is a relatively new ransomware, safety measures engineers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decoding tools are frequently upgraded, so the solution may soon arrive.
Of course, if the hackers do the job of encoding someone’s essential files, the desperate person will probably 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 obtaining the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of ransomware developers 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 disk or at least on an external storage. Surely, that might be insufficient. The most important thing could be that one you were working upon when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.
Secureagent 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, Isal, Bpws, Znto, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Secureagent are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in every folder containing encoded files.
Some lucky users were able to decode the arrested files with the help of the free software provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the criminals accidentally send the decryption code to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But naturally, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.
How do I avoid ransomware injection?
Secureagent ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, neither does any similar malware.
You can defend your PC from ransomware attack in several easy steps:
- Ignore any letters from unknown senders with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (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, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A fake email will surely contain mistakes.
- Do not use cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often shared as an element of cracked products, most likely under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from reliable software, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try searching for information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such programs at all.
- And finally, to be sure about the safety of the objects you downloaded, check them with GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This program will be a perfect defense for your personal computer.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft3
There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft4.
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 system.
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 computer for Secureagent 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 finished, 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.
FAQ
🤔 How can I open “.secured” files?Are the “.secured” files accessible?
There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.secured” files are decrypted.
🤔 What should I do to make my files accessible as fast as possible?
If the “.secured” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. All other solutions require time.
🤔 If GridinSoft deletes the Secureagent malware, will it also delete my files that were encrypted?
Of course not. Unlike the ransomware program itself, the encrypted files do not jeopardize your system.
With the help of GridinSoft Anti-Malware, you can clean your PC off the actual viruses. The ransomware that has attacked your system is most likely still active and launching checks from time to time to arrest any new files you might create on your computer after the initial attack. As it has already been said, the Secureagent virus comes with the company. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide criminals with easy access to your computer in the future.
🤔 What to do if the Secureagent malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.
In such a case, you need to prepare a flash memory card with a previously installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to do the cleaning. The point is that the ransomware starts automatically as the system launches and encrypts any new files created or brought into your machine. To suppress this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the essential programs to run upon system start. Consider reading our manual on running Windows in Safe Mode.
🤔 What could help the situation right now?
Some of the blocked data can be located elsewhere.
- If you exchanged your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
- You may have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to post those images back to you.
- If you have initially got 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 too.
- It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a portable device, phone, flash memory, etc.
USEFUL TIP: You can employ file recovery programs5 to get your lost data back since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before 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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Brendan SmithHow to Remove SECUREAGENT Ransomware & Recover PC
Name: SECUREAGENT Virus
Description: SECUREAGENT Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .secured extension. So, you can't use them at all.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Virus
User Review
( votes)References
- You can read more on Trojans, their use and types in the Trojan-dedicated section of GridinSoft official website.
- You can read more on spyware variants and nature in the respective section of GridinSoft official website.
- GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review from HowToFix site: https://howtofix.guide/gridinsoft-anti-malware/
- More information about GridinSoft products: https://gridinsoft.com/comparison
- Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.
