Fsociety ransomware - How to remove

Mr. Robot television series is a breath of fresh air in the world where telecommunication medium streams mostly romantic comedies and twisted vampire battles. This time, the creators of this show have centralized the plot around a brilliant-minded Elliot Alderson, tempted to put his programming skills for evil purposes. A group called Fsociety attempts to enroll Elliot into its activities. Since Mr. Robot series is getting extremely popular and receiving positive reviews, it is natural to assume that more people get lured into the world of this show. Of course, hackers will not miss an opportunity to watch series, analyzing the hacking culture. As a consequence, crooks designed Fsociety ransomware. This variant is created following the EDA2 project and encrypts files with a AES algorithm. Surprisingly, this virus does not demand a ransom and seems to thrive form the idea of causing chaos.

About Fsociety Ransomware

Real-life Fsociety virus seems to be pretty weak at this point: like a baby bird, only spreading its wings and preparing for a dive into the sky. For now, as soon as people get infected with this ransomware, only a couple of files are going to be targeted for AES encryption (also, encryption key is encrypted with RSA algorithm). Almost as if crooks are breaking new ground and do not have any actual experience in the development of ransomware. As it is accustomed, IT specialists expected to analyze a ransom note. However, such content is not placed after the nominal encryption.

Maybe a couple of wannabe hackers constructed this Fsociety virus for the sake of making Mr. Robot series receive more attention from the media? The main reason for this infection is not yet clear. The only thing that is obvious is that the logo of FSociety group is used as a picture to be designated as victims’ wallpapers. Let’s stick to see where this Fsociety virus is headed and if it starts demanding a ransom.

How to Decrypt Files Encrypted by Fsociety Ransomware?

IT specialist have not gotten the proper chance to create a decryptor for Fsociety virus. If this ransomware begins to seriously threaten Internet users, such recovery tool is probably going to be developed. For now, if your files are encrypted, try to use universal file-recovery programs. It is also a very good idea to store files in backup storages. There are a number of such online facilities and you can pick whichever seems to be the most fitting for you. The more valuable data you simply store in your computer, the bigger damage ransomware viruses can do.

How is Fsociety Ransomware Distributed?

You can receive the payload of a Fsociety virus from your email accounts. Spam letters are regarded as one of the main techniques, chosen for the distribution of ransomware infections. If you happen to open an infectious message and download the suggested attachment, you might be allowing an encryption-monster into your device. To avoid this situation, clean your email accounts from questionable letters and only read such content if you are certain it is proper.

Crypto-ransomware is easily eliminated by sophisticated antivirus tools: there is no doubt that Spyhunter or Malwarebytes will do one hell of a job.

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Fsociety ransomware

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 Fsociety virus. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Fsociety 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 Fsociety 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 Fsociety 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.