Do you know what Topinambour is?
Topinambour is a dangerous malicious application that might come from a group of cybercriminals who call themselves by many names, for example, Turla, Waterbug, Snake, Whitebear, and so on. Unusually, their creations are targeted at government institutions and other organizations. Thus, we do not think this malicious application could be used to attack computer users at home. If you are interested in learning more details about it, we invite you to read the rest of our report. At the end of it, we display a removal guide that shows locations of where the malware could install itself if it enters a system. It is essential to explain that even if you follow our instructions carefully, you might still be unable to eliminate Topinambour. That is because we cannot guarantee the removal guide will work for every malicious application’s version, which it could have several. Thus, the truth is that it is safer to delete it with a chosen antimalware tool.
Since there might be more than one Topinambour version, it is difficult to say how they could all be distributed. Our computer security specialists believe the threat could travel with unreliable email attachments. Therefore, it is vital to be careful with emails coming from unknown senders. Also, users should pay attention to emails or messages received unexpectedly. In such a case, it would be wise to investigate such content more closely and to scan attached files with a reputable antimalware tool that could identify whether they are harmful or not. Also, it is possible such a threat could sneak in by exploiting targeted system’s vulnerabilities, which is why, users should keep their systems up-to-date and make sure there are no other weaknesses, such as weak passwords.
After entering a system, Topinambour might settle in by placing files in the locations mentioned in our removal guide. Of course, different Trojan’s variants could pick different directories, which is why we cannot be guaranteed the instructions will work for all the threat’s victims. As soon as the malicious application gets installed, it should be able to upload, download, and execute files, which might enable the malware to infect a device with more threats, copy victim’s data, and so on. Moreover, research shows that Topinambour might be able to take screenshots to spy on a user or record sensitive information. Such behavior could put both a victim’s system and his privacy at tremendous risk. Naturally, if a target is some organization, the consequences of receiving such a threat could be extremely severe.
In this case, we do not recommend removing Topinambour manually even though we display deletion instructions below this paragraph. They may not work on all of the Trojan’s versions and so to make sure the malicious application gets erased, it would be safer to use a reputable antimalware tool. If you need more help or have questions about Topinambour, we encourage you to leave us a message at the end of this page.
Erase Topinambour
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
- Pick Task Manager and check the Processes tab.
- Locate a process belonging to the malware.
- Choose the process and click End Task.
- Exit Task Manager.
- Click Windows Key+E.
- Navigate to the suggested paths:
%TEMP%
%USERPROFILE%Desktop
%USERPROFILE%Downloads - Find a file opened when the device got infected, right-click the malicious file, and select Delete.
- Go to: %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
- Search for a file called certcheck.exe, right-click it and press Delete.
- Find this location: %TEMP%
- Search for a file called activator.exe, right-click it and press Delete.
- Then locate these folders:
C:\Windows\Tasks
C:\Windows\System32\Tasks - See if you can find tasks that might belong to the Trojan, right-click them and choose Delete.
- Exit File Explorer.
- Empty Recycle bin.
- Restart the computer.
In non-techie terms:
Topinambour is classified as a Trojan infection as it can enter a system without any permission. Also, the malicious application is capable of gathering sensitive information, copying data on an infected device, as well as dropping more threats. As explained at the beginning of this report, it is more likely that the malware will be used to attack computers used by government institutions, businesses, or other organizations. Nevertheless, we cannot be sure that no home users will be affected by this Trojan. For those who do encounter it, we recommend using a reputable antimalware tool that would help to eliminate Topinambour once and for all. The threat should be erased as fast as possible to prevent it from obtaining valuable information or infected a system with more malware. As for the removal guide available below, users should know that it may not work for all of the malware’s versions, which is why it is advisable to leaves this task to IT specialists and reliable antimalware tools.