SEPSIS Ransomware (.SEPSIS files) — Removal Guide

The Sepsis virus belongs with the ransomware type of malicious agent. A harmful program of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (photos, documents, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, showing you a pop-up window at the end of encryption.

What is Sepsis virus?

☝️ A strictly accurate designation for the Sepsis is “a ransomware malicious agent”.

The pattern of renaming is this: [contact email].SEPSIS. In the course of encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.[[email protected]].SEPSIS”.

After the encryption, you will see the pop-up window. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting [email protected] by email. That is basically the scheme of the crime.

Sepsis abstract:

The Pop-up window coming in package with the Sepsis ransomware states the following:

Welcome to Sepsis Ransomware!
All your files have been encrypted!
All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC. If you want to restore them, write us to the e-mail [email protected]
Write this ID in the title of your message 16E734E0
In case of no answer in 24 hours write us to theese e-mails:[email protected]
The price depends on how fast you write to us. You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. After payment we will send you the decryption tool that will decrypt all your files.
Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 5 files for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 10Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)
How to obtain Bitcoins
The easiest way to buy bitcoins is LocalBitcoins site. You have to register, click \'Buy bitcoins\', and select the seller by payment method and price.
hxxps://localbitcoins.com/buy_bitcoins
Also you can find other places to buy Bitcoins and beginners guide here:
hxxp://www.coindesk.com/information/how-can-i-buy-bitcoins/
Attention!
Do not rename encrypted files.
Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

In the screenshot below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Sepsis looks like. Each filename has the “.[contact email].SEPSIS” extension appended to it.

How did my computer get infected with Sepsis ransomware?

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

There are currently three most exploited ways for criminals to have ransomware acting in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your mailbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is strange to you, beware of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a malicious item enclosed in them. Therefore, it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the 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 guess 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 anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove the Sepsis virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Sepsis virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often racketeers would decode several of your files to prove that they indeed have the decryption program. As Sepsis virus is a relatively new ransomware, anti-malware engineers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. However, the decryption instruments are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the evildoers do the job of encoding someone’s essential data, the desperate person will most likely comply with their demands. Despite that, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After receiving the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about racketeers just vanishing after getting the ransom without even writing back.

The optimal 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 storage. Obviously, that might be insufficient. Your most important thing could be that file you were working on when it all started. Nevertheless, 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 Sepsis, that work similarly. Examples of those are Qbaa, Ooii, Fgui, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Sepsis are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: files become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes are created in each directory containing encoded files.

Some fortunate people were able to decode the blocked files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-malware experts. Sometimes the hackers mistakenly send the decoding key to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But naturally, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ technology to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How сan I avoid ransomware injection?

Sepsis ransomware has no superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can defend your computer from its infiltration taking several easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the dubious letter with caution. A fake letter will surely contain mistakes.
• Never use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as an element of cracked products, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such software.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft²

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

🤔 Can I somehow access “.[contact email].SEPSIS” files?

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.[contact email].SEPSIS” files are decrypted.

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

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. 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 actions should I take if the Sepsis malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the encrypted data can be found elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your critical files via email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You may have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud drives might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, mobile, memory stick, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery programs⁴ to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, deleting the authentic ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn 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.

Also, you can contact the following governmental 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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