WATCH Ransomware 🔐 (.WATCH File) — Removal Guide

The Watch virus falls within the Dharma ransomware family. Harmful software of this type encrypts all user’s data on the computer (photos, documents, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, leaving the info.txt files in every directory with the encrypted files.

Watch virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A scientifically accurate denomination for the Watch would be “a Dharma family ransomware-type infection”.

The pattern of renaming is the following: id-xxxxx.[contact_email].watch. After the encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be changed to “report.docx.id-9ECFA84E.[[email protected]].watch”.

In each directory containing the encrypted files, a info.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the ransomware developers. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting [email protected] through email. That is it.

Watch abstract:

The info.txt document coming in package with the Watch ransomware provides the following discouraging information:

all your data has been locked us
You want to return?
write email [email protected] or [email protected]

In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Watch looks like. Each filename has the “.watch” extension appended to it.

How did my machine catch Watch ransomware?

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

Nowadays, there are three most exploited ways for malefactors to have the Watch virus planted in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you open your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is unknown to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a viral item enclosed in them. Thus it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the peer-to-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 know what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove the Watch virus?

It is important to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Watch virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to get access to credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Sometimes racketeers would unblock several of your files so you know that they do have the decryption program. As Watch virus is a relatively new ransomware, anti-malware designers have not yet found a method to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the decoding instruments are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Of course, if the evildoers succeed in encrypting victim’s essential files, the hopeless person will most likely comply with their demands. Nevertheless, paying to racketeers gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption key to the injured party. There were reports of ransomware developers just vanishing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The best countermeasure to ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud drive or at least on an external disk. Of course, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working on when it all went down. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your drives with the anti-malware utility after the system restoration.

There are other ransomware products, besides Watch, that work similarly. For instance, Oori, Ooxa, Ggew, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Watch are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: documents become inaccessible, their extensions altered, ransom notes appear in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some lucky users were able to decrypt the arrested files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-malware specialists. Sometimes the criminals mistakenly send the decryption key to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ instrument to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infection?

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

You can armour your computer from ransomware infiltration in three easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown mailers with unknown 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?). In case 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 shared as a part of cracked software, most likely under the guise of “patch” to prevent the license check. But untrusted programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy ones, as trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the best solution is not to use such programs at all.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft³

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 “.watch” files?

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

🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?

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. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What to do if the Watch virus has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the blocked data can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your critical files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try downloading them 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 computer, a notebook, mobile, external storage, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ data recovery utilities⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, deleting the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you remove the virus 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.

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