SNICK Virus Files of Ransomware — How to remove virus?

The Snick virus belongs to the Makop ransomware family. Ransomware of this type encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its extra extension to every file, leaving the readme-warning.txt files in each folder containing encrypted files.

What is Snick virus?

☝️ A scientifically accurate designation for the Snick is “a Makop family ransomware infection”.

The pattern of renaming is the following: id-*******.[email address].snick. In the process of encryption, a file entitled, for instance, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.id-247CQU3108.[[email protected]].snick”.

In each directory with the encrypted files, a readme-warning.txt text document will appear. 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 most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this tool after contacting [email protected] through email. That is basically the scheme of the crime.

Snick outline:

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

How did my computer get infected with Snick ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most exploited ways for criminals to have ransomware working in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer networks.

If you access your mailbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet 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 enclosed in them. Thus it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the peer-to-peer networks 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How do I get rid of the Snick virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Snick virus will probably deploy the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware³ can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often racketeers would unblock some of your files to prove that they really have the decryption tool. Since Snick virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware engineers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decoding tools are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the malefactors do the job of encoding someone’s essential data, the desperate person will most likely fulfill their demands. However, paying to racketeers gives no guarantee that you’re getting your files back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about racketeers simply vanishing 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 essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external storage. Surely, that might be insufficient. The most crucial 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 antivirus program after the OS restoration.

Snick 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, Ooii, Eucy, Ccps, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Snick are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate people were able to decrypt the blocked files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-malware specialists. Sometimes the hackers mistakenly send the decryption key to the victims in the ransom note. Such an extraordinary fail allows the user to restore the files. But of course, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a tamperers’ instrument to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How сan I avert ransomware infection?

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

You can protect your system from ransomware infiltration within three easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailers with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to 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 waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the dubious email with caution. A hoax email will surely have a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often spreaded as a part of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” to prevent the license check. Understandably, dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution 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”.

FAQ

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

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.id-*******.[email address].snick” files you will not be able to access 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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.

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

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the encoded files might still be at your disposal

• If you sent or received your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared photographs 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 Internet, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud drives might have all those files as well.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a laptop, cellphone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use file recovery programs⁶ to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the ransomware itself with an antivirus 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.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. Here’s the list of Best Data Recovery Software Of 2023.