SWIFT Ransomware 🔐 (.SWIFT File) — Removal Guide

The Swift virus belongs to the Proton ransomware family. A harmful program of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and adds its own extension to every file, creating the #SWIFT-Help.txt text files in every directory which contains the encrypted files.

What is Swift virus?

☝️ Swift is a Proton family ransomware-type virus.

The renaming will be done according to this pattern: [contact-email].SWIFT. As a part of encryption, a file named, for example, “report.docx” will be renamed to “report.docx.[[email protected]].SWIFT”.

In each folder containing the encoded files, a #SWIFT-Help.txt text document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this decrypting software after contacting [email protected] through email. That is pretty much the scheme of the malefaction.

Swift Summary:

The #SWIFT-Help.txt document coming in package with the Swift malware provides the following discouraging information:

~~~ SWIFT ~~~            
>>> What happened?
We encrypted and stolen all of your files.
We use AES and ECC algorithms.
Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service.

>>> How to recover?
We are not a politically motivated group and we want nothing more than money.
If you pay, we will provide you with decryption software and destroy the stolen data.

>>> What guarantees?
You can send us an unimportant file less than 1 MG, We decrypt it as guarantee.
If we do not send you the decryption software or delete stolen data, no one will pay us in future so we will keep our promise.

>>> How to contact us?
Our email address: [email protected]
Our Telegram ID: @swift_support
In case of no answer within 24 hours, contact to this email: [email protected]
Write your personal ID in the subject of the email.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>> Your personal ID: - <<<<<
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>> Warnings!
- Do not go to recovery companies, they are just middlemen who will make money off you and cheat you.
They secretly negotiate with us, buy decryption software and will sell it to you many times more expensive or they will simply scam you.
- Do not hesitate for a long time. The faster you pay, the lower the price.
- Do not delete or modify encrypted files, it will lead to problems with decryption of files.

In the screenshot below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Swift looks like. Each filename has the “.SWIFT” extension added to it.

How did Swift ransomware end up on my PC?

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

There are currently three most popular ways for hackers to have the Swift virus acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer-to-peer file transfer.

• Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus model. A Trojan is a program that gets into your machine pretending to be something different. Imagine, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some service. However, what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful agent that compromises your data. As the installation file can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The best way is to use the software developers’ official websites.
• As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols 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 websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded objects with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove ransomware?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your files, the Swift virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your computer to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

How do I avert ransomware infiltration?

Swift ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, neither does any similar malware.

You can defend yourself from ransomware injection taking several easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with 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 expecting, check all elements of the suspicious letter with caution. A hoax email will always contain mistakes.
• Never use cracked or untrusted software. Trojans are often spreaded as an element of cracked software, most likely under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. But dubious programs are difficult to distinguish from reliable software, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. Try searching for information about this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the best solution is not to use such programs at all.

FAQ

🤔 Can I somehow access “.SWIFT” files?

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.SWIFT” files are decrypted.

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

If the “.SWIFT” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What to do if the Swift virus has blocked my PC 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 exchanged your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to give 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 media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a notebook, phone, memory stick, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery programs² to get your lost data back since ransomware encrypts 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 be advised: you can do it only after you eradicate the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. Here’s the list of Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2024.