SOLO Virus 🔐 (.SOLO Files) — How to Remove?

The Solo virus belongs under the VoidCrypt ransomware family. Harmful software 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, creating the unlock-info.txt text files in every directory containing encrypted files.

What is Solo virus?

☝️ A strictly correct description for the Solo would be “a VoidCrypt family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

The scheme of renaming is this: (victim_id)(contact_email).solo. As a part of encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.(CW-DV6109742358)([email protected]).solo”.

In every folder with the encoded files, a unlock-info.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money note. It contains information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this tool after contacting [email protected] via email. That is it.

Solo overview:

The unlock-info.txt file accompanying the Solo ransomware states the following:

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 : -
In case of no answer in 24 hours write us to theese e-mails: [email protected]
You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. The price depends on how fast you write to us. 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 1 file for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 1Mb (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 picture below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Solo looks like. Each filename has the “.solo” extension appended to it.

How did my machine catch Solo ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most exploited methods for evil-doers to have the Solo virus settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer file transfer.

If you open your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is unknown to you, beware of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a harmful file attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrent trackers 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 directory containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How to remove the Solo virus?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Solo virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware on your computer to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware³ can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often tamperers would decrypt some of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption tool. Since Solo virus is a relatively new ransomware, safety measures developers have not yet found a method to undo its work. However, the decoding instruments are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Of course, if the criminals do the job of encoding victim’s critical data, the hopeless person will probably comply with their demands. Despite that, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your data back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about malefactors just vanishing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The best 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 storage. Surely, that might be not enough. The 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 PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.

Solo 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, Eewt, Adww, Oflg, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Solo are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in each folder containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate victims were able to decode the blocked files with the help of the free software provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding code to the victims in the ransom note. Such an extraordinary fail allows the victim to restore the files. But naturally, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a bandits’ tool to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How do I avoid ransomware infiltration?

Solo ransomware has no endless power, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour yourself from its infiltration in several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown mailboxes with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious letter carefully. A fake letter will always have a mistake.
• Never use cracked or untrusted software. Trojan viruses are often distributed as a part of cracked software, most likely as a “patch” to prevent the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are very hard to tell from reliable software, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such software.

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

🤔 Can I somehow access “.solo” files?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.solo” files first. Then you will be able to open them.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.solo” files ASAP. How can I do that?

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 Solo malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be within your reach

• If you sent or received your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to give those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Web, you can try downloading them 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, phone, flash memory, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ file recovery programs⁶ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video 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 eradicate 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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