Anatel Ransomware - How to remove

Fear is the drive for mankind to be controlled by a stronger leader or abuser. You can corrupt the mind of a man who has reached its limits. One can only assume what emotions are triggered when crypto-ransomware viruses encroach on their victims’ privacy. People are desperately trying to find a solution and sometimes, neglecting rationality, pay the ransom hackers demand. Even such entities as powerful universities have been forced to wave the white flag as a symbol of defeat. Anatel ransomware virus is yet another ticking bomb, targeting mostly people that are from Portuguese-speaking countries.

About Anatel Ransomware

Anatel virus proceeds like any other ransomware: with its payload being secretively installed into your computer as an unnoticeable file. Lair for this executable is in one of the PC’s directories that usually store similar data. Anatel virus plans to influence your Windows Registry Keys that are responsible for automatically running software applications once computer system is launched. Due to the modifications, made to specific entries, the payload of Anatel ransomware will run together with other applications. After that, there is nothing standing in the way of successful encoding. As the process begins to bloom, the more files are being encrypted with strong cipher. The targeted data might be the following: .asp .aspx .avi .bat .bk .bmp .css .csv .divx .doc .docx .html .index .jpeg .jpg .lnk .mdb .mkv .mov .mp3 .mp4 .mpeg .odt .ogg .pdf .php .png .ppt .pptx .psd .rar .sln .sql .txt .wav .wma .wmv .xls .xlsx .xml .zip. These extensions might get an addition of .lok which indicates that this piece of data is corrupted by Anatel virus. Sometime at the very end of the encryption, Anatel ransomware finds a way to contact its creators and provide them with the generated decryption code and other required information. Then virus is ready to reveal its demands in a LEIA.txt file which means “Read” in English. It says:

“Anatel, seus arquivos foram criptografados
Exigmos o fim do bolqueio de franquias
Envie um email para {cyber-criminals’ e-mail address} para receber a senha
We are anonymous”
Translation:
Anatel, the files were encrypted
We demand the end of the franchise block
Send an email to {cyber-criminals’ email address} to receive the password
We are anonymous”

The mystery of why hackers proclaim to be anonymous is yet unsolved.

How to Decrypt the Files Encrypted by Anatel Ransomware?

The ransom that Anatel virus might asks can vary from 100 to 1000 dollars, probably depending on the amount of files that have been encrypted. Do not pay the fee for your data and attempt to restore your files yourself. There are many different file-recovery tools that might be helpful. Also, when you contact the provided cyber criminals’ email address, make sure to demand for them to decrypt at least one file. Kaspersky tools might help you restore the remaining data with the encrypted and decrypted file. Furthermore, if you scroll down below, you will find other alternatives that might help you restore your files. The easiest way would be to retrieve them from backup storages. That is, of course, if you placed them there.

How is Anatel Ransomware Distributed?

Cyber criminals are figuring out techniques to infect people with ransomware infections. It is easy money and Anatel virus plans to convince people to pay the demanded fee as much as possible. But first, all of the infected victims had to get this parasite from somewhere. Social networking sites, forums, email accounts can be filled with spam letters that have links or attachments. Most of the time, these messages will seem to be originating from trustworthy sources, discussing one or another topic. However, you should consider whether such letter is really as reliable as it says. Especially, when the appended attachment might be actually a payload of Anatel ransomware.

To remove Anatel virus from your PC, the best option would be to select antivirus tools and automatically destroy every trace of this infection. Spyhunter or Hitman are bringing satisfactory results for people around the world and continuing to prove their professionalism to this day.

How to recover Anatel Ransomware encrypted files and remove the virus

Step 1. Restore system into last known good state using system restore

1. Reboot your computer to Safe Mode with Command Prompt:

for Windows 7 / Vista/ XP

• Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
• Press F8 key repeatedly until Advanced Boot Options window appears.
• Choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

for Windows 8 / 10

• Press Power at Windows login screen. Then press and hold Shift key and click Restart.
• Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings and click Restart.
• When it loads, select Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt from the list of Startup Settings.

 

2.Restore System files and settings.

• When Command Prompt mode loads, enter cd restore and press Enter.
• Then enter rstrui.exe and press Enter again.
• Click “Next” in the windows that appeared.
• Select one of the Restore Points that are available before Anatel Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Anatel virus

After restoring your system, it is recommended to scan your computer with an anti-malware program, like Spyhunter and remove all malicious files related to Anatel Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Anatel Ransomware affected files using Shadow Volume Copies

If you do not use System Restore option on your operating system, there is a chance to use shadow copy snapshots. They store copies of your files that point of time when the system restore snapshot was created. Usually Anatel virus tries to delete all possible Shadow Volume Copies, so this methods may not work on all computers. However, it may fail to do so. Shadow Volume Copies are only available with Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. There are two ways to retrieve your files via Shadow Volume Copy. You can do it using native Windows Previous Versions or via Shadow Explorer. a) Native Windows Previous Versions Right-click on an encrypted file and select Properties → Previous versions tab. Now you will see all available copies of that particular file and the time when it was stored in a Shadow Volume Copy. Choose the version of the file you want to retrieve and click Copy if you want to save it to some directory of your own, or Restore if you want to replace existing, encrypted file. If you want to see the content of file first, just click Open.

b) Shadow Explorer It is a program that can be found online for free. You can download either a full or a portable version of Shadow Explorer. Open the program. On the left top corner select the drive where the file you are looking for is a stored. You will see all folders on that drive. To retrieve a whole folder, right-click on it and select “Export”. Then choose where you want it to be stored.

Step 4. Use Data Recovery programs to recover Anatel Ransomware encrypted files

There are several data recovery programs that might recover encrypted files as well. This does not work in all cases but you can try this:

• We suggest using another PC and connect the infected hard drive as slave. It is still possible to do this on infected PC though.
• Download a data recovery program.
• Install and scan for recently deleted files.

Note: In many cases it is impossible to restore data files affected by modern ransomware. Thus I recommend using decent cloud backup software as precaution. We recommend checking out Carbonite, BackBlaze, CrashPlan or Mozy Home.