Damoclis gladius virus - How to remove

Damoclis gladius virus or simply Damoclis ransomware is a dangerous computer infection which can be categorised as a trojan worm or ransomware. In this particular case we would like to name it as a ransomware due to the fact that it demands a ransom in order to unlock encrypted files.

Once installed on your computer Damocilis will look for the files that can be possibly locked and append a unique extension to every single one of them, encrypting files with a strong AES cryptography. If you are a victim of this infection and your files are locked, you are in the right place – in this post we will provide you with essential information about the virus itself and propose the most efficient ways to solve this problem.

All about Damoclis virus

We have already mentioned that this infection is targeting your personal files. Basically all files, such as images, videos, text documents and so on can be affected by this infection. Distribution of malicious files of this infection is based on spam emails. Hackers behind Damoclis virus launch spam emails campaigns in order to trick people and infect as many computers as possible.

Usually the payload file comes attached to the spam email, thus the virus will be infiltrated into your system as soon as you open the attachment. When the virus enters the system, it will immediately start the process of encryption.  Extension .damoclis will be added to the end of most of your private files. For instance, if you had a file named “something.txt.”, now it will look like “something.txt.damoclis”. That means you can not open that file anymore.

Immediately after that Damoclis ransomware will place a new .txt document on your desktop and change your desktop picture to a ransom note. Original text of the message:

All your work and personal files have been encrypted

Damoclis gladius Ransomware

To decrypt your files you need to buy the special software – “Damoclis gladius decryptor”
To recover data, follow the instructions!

You can find out the details/ask questions in the e-mail:
[email protected]
You can find out the details/ask questions in the chat:
Tor link
Tor link
Tor link

If the resource is not available for a long time, install and use the Tor-browser:
1. Run your Internet-browser
2. Enter or copy the address *tor link* in the address bar of your browser and press key ENTER
3. On the site will be offered to download the Tor-browser, download and install it. Run.
4. Connect with the button “Connect” (if you use the English version)
5. After connection, the usual Tor-browser window will open
6. Enter or copy the address xx in the address bar of Tor-browser and press key ENTER
7. Wait for the site to load

// If you have any problems installing or using, please visit the video tutorial *link to Youtube*

As you can see, cyber criminals want you to purchase an unique key for files decryption. As we know, it costs around 400 USD. Even though the files you lost are very important to you, we suggest not to pay the ransom – it’s always not a good idea. Unfortunately, there are no way to restore files locked by Damoclis at the moment, unless you have a backup file of your hard drive, that was created before the infection. In this case, you should follow our restore guide and turn your system to the previous state.

Even though you can’t retrieve your locked files, all components of the virus should be removed from the computer. It can be easily achieved with some help of reliable anti-malware software, such as Spyhunter. Scan your computer with one of those programs and the virus will be gone just in a few minutes.

How to recover Damoclis gladius virus 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 Damoclis gladius virus has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Damoclis gladius 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 Damoclis gladius virus. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Damoclis gladius virus 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 Damoclis gladius 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 Damoclis gladius virus 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.