Do you know what SnowPicnic Ransomware is?
SnowPicnic Ransomware is no picnic at all. In fact, if this infection invades your operating system successfully, you might be suffering the consequences for a very long time. Although deleting the threat should not be too complicated – especially if you can pin the launcher file – recovering the files that this malware corrupts might be impossible. The situation might be truly devastating if the corrupted files are not backed up. Windows users without the backups are the intended targets of the infection because they are the ones who could be pushed into paying money to get their files decrypted. Can you recover files by removing SnowPicnic Ransomware? Unfortunately, that might not be an option.
According to our research team, SnowPicnic Ransomware was created by the same attackers who stand behind the malicious Scrabber Ransomware. We have talked about this infection in the past. The main thing about this malware was that it did not work, and that is what we have faced when analyzing the suspicious SnowPicnic Ransomware. In fact, this threat is also known as 0BtcRansoware because the ransom is set at 0 Bitcoin. That means that the infection is not used to push victims into paying any money. Although the samples we managed to obtain did not work, we cannot ignore this threat because there is always a possibility that it could be modified and released into the wild as a fully-functional threat. Even if Windows users did not need to worry about the removal of this malware at the time of research, that does not mean that the situation could not change in the future.
It appears that SnowPicnic Ransomware was created using the Hidden Tear code, which has been used by ransomware creators in the past. Threats from this group are often seen spreading via spam emails, and so if you want to avoid file encryptors, you really need to be cautious about the emails you open. You also have to be careful about the software or files you download. Drawing from the SnowPicnic Ransomware code that our malware experts analyzed, it is known that the infection is meant to encrypt files that match 141 different extensions. Also, the “.snowpicnic” extension should be attached to the files’ names. It was also discovered that the threat should create “Read.TXT” and “Read.HTML” and drop these file to all affected locations. At this point, the ransom note does not make sense, but if it were active, it would probably ask victims to send an email or transfer money as a ransom.
Clearly, not much is known about the suspicious SnowPicnic Ransomware at this point, but do we know for sure that Windows users will not need to defend their files against this malware or remove it? We definitely do not know this. As always, knowledge and protection are two greatest weapons against any kind of malware. Now that you know about the threat, all there is left for you to do is to install trusted security software. If you do this, we are sure you will not need to worry about facing or deleting SnowPicnic Ransomware. Another important thing to note is that important and valuable files must be backed up at all times (online or external drives) because you want to be prepared for malware attacks.
Remove SnowPicnic Ransomware
- Delete all recently downloaded suspicious files (name and location are random).
- Delete the ransom note files, READ.txt and READ.html.
- Empty Recycle Bin.
- Install a malware scanner.
- Perform a system scan and if any threats are found, delete them at once.
In non-techie terms:
At the moment, SnowPicnic Ransomware is not a real threat to your security because it does not appear to be fully formed and released into the wild. Unfortunately, this could change at any minute, which is why it is important to understand the threat and prepare yourself for the potential attack. To avoid this and many other file-encrypting threats, be cautious about spam emails and unreliable downloaders. Also, back up your files to protect them in case anything happens to the original copies. Finally, install trusted anti-malware software to protect your operating system. If it slithers in, you can always utilize anti-malware software to delete SnowPicnic Ransomware. We have also created a simple guide that might help you eliminate the malicious components of this ransomware on the most basic level.