Do you know what Energy Ransomware is?
Energy Ransomware, as you know, is a ransomware infection. It is classified like that because its creator uses it to extort money from victims. And how is the ransom request justified? The attackers use the infection to encrypt files, and then they can try to sell a decryptor. In fact, we cannot be 100% sure about the demands and the promises because the introduced message – and ransomware always introduces a message in one way or another – is very vague. We discuss it more in this report, and we also show how to remove Energy Ransomware. Unfortunately, your files will not be restored after deleting this malware, but that does not mean that all is lost. Ideally, you can replace your files, and you do not need to think about decryption at all.
We can only guess how Energy Ransomware slithered into your operating system. Did you open a file sent to you via email? Did you download a new program? Did you click on an update pop-up that showed up on an unfamiliar website? There are plenty of backdoors that cybercriminals can exploit, and we cannot know which one was used to help Energy Ransomware infiltrate. However, we know that if reliable anti-malware software does not exist on your system, the infection must have encrypted all of the personal files in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%, %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, %USERPROFILE%\Documents, and %USERPROFILE%\Pictures directories. The infection does not corrupt all files, but according to our researchers, it targets 100 unique types of files, and that is enough to encrypt documents, photos, videos, audios, archives, etc. After the encryption, all files should have the “.energy[potentialenergy@mail.ru]” extension appended to their names.
While it is an important task for Energy Ransomware to encrypt your files, that is just something that the attackers need to validate the message represented via the “HOW_TO_DECYPHER_FILES.txt” file. It should be dropped onto the Desktop. The message suggests that you can recover all encrypted data by contacting the attackers via potentialenergy@mail.ru. Needless to say, this malware was not built just so that cybercriminals could trick you into contacting them, which, by the way, can be very dangerous too. The point here is to identify you as a real victim of the infection, and if you are identified as one, the attackers can demand money from you. They are likely to offer a decryptor for a certain sum of money, but do not give in. There is no proof that anything would be given to you if you paid the ransom. That is why we want to move on to the removal of the threat now.
Do you have a plan on how to delete Energy Ransomware? Perhaps you are interested in the manual removal of this malware. Well, if that is the case, we cannot help you much. The infection does not install to a specific folder, and its name can be completely random. You might be able to find the file using a trusted malware scanner, but can you delete malware? Can you secure your system against malware attacks in the future? If you cannot ensure any of this, we strongly recommend installing a trusted anti-malware tool. It will instantly remove Energy Ransomware, and you will not need to worry about protection furthermore. If you have backup copies of the encrypted files, this is when you can try replacing them.
Remove Energy Ransomware
- Delete all recently downloaded suspicious files.
- Delete the HOW_TO_DECYPHER_FILES.txt file from the Desktop.
- Empty Recycle Bin once you think that all files were erased.
- Install a trusted malware scanner.
- Perform a full system scan to check if you have succeeded.
In non-techie terms:
Energy Ransomware must be removed. Ideally, you remove it before it encrypts your files. Unfortunately, this malware is stealthy, and you are unlikely to realize what has happened until you find that your files are unreadable (because they were encrypted) or until you find a file named “HOW_TO_DECYPHER_FILES.txt” dropped on the Desktop. The infection was created to extort money from you, but remember that cybercriminals’ promises are usually completely empty, and so even if they promise full decryption in exchange for money, you cannot trust them. In fact, we do not recommend emailing them in the first place because that could put you at risk also. If you want to delete Energy Ransomware manually, make sure you know what you are doing. If you do not know that, and if you need help securing Windows, implement anti-malware software without further delay.