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

The Zenya virus belongs to the Xorist ransomware family. Ransomware of such sort encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its specific extension to every file, creating the HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt text files in each directory containing encrypted files.

What is known about the Zenyavirus?

☝️ A strictly accurate denomination for the Zenya would be “a Xorist family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

Zenya will append its specific .ZeNyA extension to the title of every encrypted file. For example, an image named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.ZeNyA”. Likewise, the Excel table named “table.xlsx” will be altered to “table.xlsx.ZeNyA”, and so on.

In each folder containing the encoded files, a HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt text file will appear. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is basically the scheme of the malefaction.

Zenya abstract:

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

How did my computer get infected with Zenya ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for malefactors to have ransomware settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is strange to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a malicious item enclosed in them. Thus it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the peer-to-peer networks 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 files with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of the Zenya virus?

It is important to note that besides encrypting your files, the Zenya virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware³ can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Sometimes racketeers would decrypt several of your files so you know that they really have the decryption program. As Zenya virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware developers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware instruments are frequently updated, so the solution may soon arrive.

Understandably, if the tamperers succeed in encrypting victim’s essential data, the hopeless person will probably comply with their demands. However, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about hackers just disappearing after getting the ransom without even writing back.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud storage or at least on an external storage. Obviously, that might be not enough. The most important thing could be that one you were working upon when it all happened. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also wise to scan your drives with the anti-malware utility after the OS is rolled back.

Zenya 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, Qqmt, Qqjj, Qqkk, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Zenya are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is almost identical: files become inaccessible, their extensions altered, ransom notes emerge in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some fortunate people were able to decode the arrested files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-malware experts. Sometimes the criminals accidentally send the decoding key to the wronged in the ransom readme. 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 tamperers’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infiltration?

Zenya ransomware has no superpower, neither does any similar malware.

You can protect your computer from its infiltration in several easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, check all elements of the dubious email carefully. A fake email will always have mistakes.
• Do not use cracked or untrusted software. Trojan viruses are often shared as a part of cracked software, possibly as a “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. Try searching for information about this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal way 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

🤔 How can I open “.ZeNyA” files?Can I somehow access “.ZeNyA” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.ZeNyA” 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. The rest of the methods require patience.

🤔 What actions should I take if the Zenya malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the blocked data can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to post those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a portable device, phone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can use data recovery utilities⁶ to retrieve your lost information 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 remember: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.

Also, you can contact the following official 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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