ZIVER Ransomware Virus Removal & How to Decrypt

The Ziver virus falls under the ransomware type of infection. Harmful software of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel tables, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the +README-WARNING+.txt text files in each directory containing encrypted files.

Ziver virus: what is known so far?

The pattern of renaming is this: .ziver. After the encryption, a file entitled, for example, “report.docx” will be turned into “report.docx.[2AF20FA3].[[email protected]].ziver”.

In every folder containing the encoded files, a +README-WARNING+.txt file will appear. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting [email protected] through email. That is pretty much the scheme of the felony.

Ziver Summary:

The +README-WARNING+.txt file coming in package with the Ziver ransomware states the following:

Files on your server are encrypted and compromised, stolen for the purpose of publishing on the internet.
You can avoid many problems associated with hacking your server.

We can decrypt your files, we can not publish files on the internet - To do this, you need to contact us as soon as possible.
To clarify the details of decryption, write to us using email.

<<>>

Avoid contacting intermediary companies that promise to decrypt files without our help - This is not true and you can lose access to your files forever.
They know how to tell a beautiful story, but they are not able to do anything without our help.
Be sure to contact us before using their help and we will show you that intermediaries can do nothing except their beautiful stories.

Email: [email protected]

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

How did my computer get infected with Ziver ransomware?

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

There are currently three most exploited ways for evil-doers to have the Ziver virus working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer file transfer.

• Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan horse scheme. A Trojan is an object that gets into your PC pretending to be something legal. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some software. However, what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful agent that compromises your data. As the installation wizard can have any title and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the resource of the things you’re downloading. The best way is to use the software companies’ official websites.
• As for the peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never guess what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How do I get rid of ransomware?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Ziver virus will probably install Vidar Stealer on your computer to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That program can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

How do I avoid ransomware injection?

Ziver ransomware has no superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can defend your PC from its attack within several easy steps:

• Ignore any emails from unknown senders with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the dubious letter carefully. A fake email will surely have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as an element of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” preventing the license check. But untrusted programs are difficult to distinguish from reliable software, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such software.

FAQ

🤔 Are the “.ziver” files accessible?

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

🤔 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. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What actions should I take if the Ziver malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Some of the encrypted data can be found elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your important files via email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to give those images 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 as well.
• 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 programs¹ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the virus with an antivirus program.

1. Here are Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2024.