TERMITE Ransomware (.TERMITE File) Virus Removal

The Termite virus falls under the Babuk ransomware family. Malware of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its extra extension to every file, creating the How To Restore Your Files.txt text files in every folder containing encrypted files.

What is Termite virus?

☝️ Termite is a Babuk family ransomware malicious agent.

Termite adds its own .termite extension to every file’s name. For example, a file named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.termite”. Just like the Excel file named “table.xlsx” will be changed to “table.xlsx.termite”, and so on.

In each directory with the encrypted files, a How To Restore Your Files.txt text document will appear. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the ransomware developers. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting [email protected] through email. That is it.

Termite Summary:

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

How did my computer get infected with Termite ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most popular methods for hackers to have the Termite virus settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer networks.

• Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file scheme. A Trojan is a program that gets into your machine disguised as something legal. For example, you download an installer for some program you need or an update for some service. However, what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful program that compromises your data. Since the update file can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the files you’re downloading. The best thing is to trust the software companies’ 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 guess what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.

How to remove ransomware?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your data, the Termite virus will probably deploy Vidar Stealer on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

How to avert ransomware infection?

Termite ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can armour your system from ransomware injection taking several easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the questionable letter carefully. A fake letter will surely have a mistake.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as a part of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” which prevents the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy ones, as trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information about this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best way is not to use such programs at all.

FAQ

🤔 How can I open “.termite” files?Is it possible to open“.termite” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.termite” files you will not be able to access them.

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

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. 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.

🤔 What should I do if the Termite malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the encrypted files might still be at your disposal

• If you exchanged your important files via email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to give those pictures 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 networks pages, and cloud drives might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, cellphone, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery utilities² to get your lost data back since ransomware blocks 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 remember: you can do it only after you eradicate the ransomware itself with an anti-malware program.

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