Jemd ransomware - How to remove

Jemd cryptovirus is a threat that appeared on the malware experts’ radar mid-December 2018. This new ransomware, which aims to encrypt personal victim’s files and demand for a payment in exchange for the decryptor, was quickly linked to another virus, known as Delphimorix, that was active a month ago. Although Jemd ransomware is allegedly another improved version of the latter crypto infection variant, researchers found that it does have more flaws than the initial release.

These found bugs revealed that the Jemd virus locked file recovery is much more difficult, despite the encrypting cipher (AES) being one of the easiest to crack, but the solution was still found in the end. If you are bothered by Jemd crypto infection and are looking for ways to remove it and potentially get your precious digital data back, 2-viruses.com team might offer you the solution which will bring you forward to a clean system and maybe even the access to all unavailable files, so keep on reading.

What does Jemd ransomware do

Pretty much all computer threats are there to make money for their developers in an easy way. Jemd ransomware, just like others of its kind, such as Cryptre, CryptoLite, Mercury, generates its profit from the ransom payments targeted victims make when they want to get the encrypted files back. Even though nowadays people are more careful with their virtual storage and they tend to regularly make Backups, there are still those who simply don’t do that and are willing to pay whatever they need so that their data would come back, and Jemd ransomware creators use this to benefit from.

When Jemd cryptovirus enters Windows OS (It doesnt affect Mac computers), it silently runs background processes which allow this ransomware to stay unnoticed by the security programs, which it also disables, and writes its files into Windows directories, making the threat persistent and active every time the computer is turned on. At the same time, it scans that PC for personal data like pictures, documents, music, videos and etc. and encrypts them with AES fast cipher. This is done to hold valuable-to-the-user info inaccessible to the victim, creating a stressful situation, which leads to users making the payment.

Also, other ransomware add file extensions to mark the affected files but Jemd virus doesn’t. It only drops a short ransom note ‘Recovery.txt’ on the desktop after everything, explaining what happened to the system and giving the contact email, to discuss the demanded money amount.

<><><><><><>jemd<><><><><><>
All your files were encrypted by jemd.
Used a AES encryption.
AES a best algorytm. If you – gruja, decryption inpossible
Contact us: [email protected]
\\Recovery.TXT

Jemd cryptovirus ransom note does not give much detail about the how much hackers expect to receive in exchange for the decryption key and in what cryptocurrency, but supposedly the trending Average amount seems to be a $1000. In addition to that, developers mention malware researcher known as @GrujaRS on Twitter who was also the one to find this threat.

As we mentioned before, this ransomware variant demonstrated some failures in a few encrypting processes making it impossible to recover with a Decryption tool, therefore even if you do pay the ransom, which is never a good idea, files will still stay locked. In such case, we just recommend skipping to the removal and recovery part of our post and trying the manual system restore method. Lastly, for more technical details about Jemd ransomware, please, see Virustotal.com report.

How Jemd ransomware spreads

In order to get into victims’ computers Jemd ransomware, unlike browser hijackers or adware, uses a different dissemination method – Social engineered emails. Despite all other techniques, which are also sometimes used by cryptovirus developers (e.g. drive-by-download, malvertising, bundling, p2p networks and etc.), fake messages with virus installer attachments seem to be still a number one spreading vector. The hardest part for the crooks is to compose an email which is believable so the targeted user would open the added .docx or .pdf file carrying Jemd cryptovirus and the challenge for the victim is spotting such malspam before opening it.

These messages can seem like important reports from healthcare facilities, government, employees and employers, visitors or even friends. This cunning approach makes it difficult to spot the lies, yet such emails have something in common – short shocking or worrisome message and urge to open the attachment for the full details. Once you do open the MS Word file it asks to Enable Macros in order to reach that content but when you click on it, instead of the promised info you initiate Jemd ransomware set up. Macros are tiny programs and is a legitimate feature of Microsoft office tools, therefore the virus doesn’t get detected by antivirus until the very last minute when it’s executed.

How to delete Jemd virus and restore locked files

Initially, once the computer gets infected with Jemd virus, you should not perform any actions with it until you remove the ransomware. Although this type of malware has only locked your personal files and the rest of the system seems to be working fine, that does not mean that your PC doesn’t have other threats, which are tracking your online steps, collecting login info and etc. Moreover, if you try to recover files while the Jemd ransomware is still there, it will encrypt data once more.

For the elimination of Jemd virus, we advise using Spyhunter Begin with running a free full system scan with either of them to check if the anti-spyware tool detects the ransomware and then continue on as the software instructs. These security products will permanently delete Jemd ransomware without you having to do anything and very soon you can prepare for the encrypted data recovery.

According to the malware experts, Jemd virus has some major bugs, one of which replaces the wrong part of the file making it impossible to recover with a specific decryptor. Fortunately, others noticed that System Restore was not impacted by the ransomware and potentially can restore the locked data back. Of course, only if you have backups. For such manual Jemd ransomware damage recovery we have designed instructions, which you will find at the end of the article, that should be useful during the process. Mind you, only the information that was backed up can be restored.

Automatic Malware removal tools

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Jemd 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 Jemd ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Jemd 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 Jemd ransomware 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 Jemd 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.