Mole Ransomware - How to remove

Mole Ransomware is a recent and very dangerous ransomware infection. Even though it is not clear yet, it looks like Mole Ransomware is just a new version of Revenge or CryptoShield malware or at least has a lot of similarities and belongs to the same ransomware family, called CryptoMix. That leads us towards conclusion that this infection is not brand new – it’s just a new name for an old thing. However, since a lot of users refer to it by the name seen on the screen, it’s our duty to provide the information regarding this particular name.

Where did Mole Ransomware came from?

As a most ransomware infections, Mole Ransomware is mainly distributed via spam emails. In this particular case cyber criminals generate fake notifications about shipping process. A lot of users do online shopping and receive updates about payments and shipping via email. Cyber criminals took advantage of it and created fake notifications about shipping details. In this particular spam email you, as a victim, will receive a notification that your package failed to be delivered and in order to get more details about it, you should check by clicking on the displayed link. And that’s how you get infected – simply by clicking on this malicious link.

About Mole Ransomware virus

Once your system is infected, Mole Ransomware will run a full scan of all files stored on your hard drive. It will try to detect files that could possibly be locked. And basically that’s any file, such as your photos, videos, audio files or text documents. When the scan is over, it will encrypt those files by adding .MOLE extension to every single of them and changing the name of the file to 32 random characters, which is quite unusual. From now on, you won’t be able to open or use your files in any other from.

Immediately after that you will notice a new text file called “INSTRUCTION_FOR_HELPING_FILE_RECOVERY.TXT” on every folder of your computer. It is a ransom note that contains detailed instructions how to pay the ransom and unlock your files. Actual text of this message looks like this:

All your important files were encrypted on this computer.
You can verify this by click on see files an try open them.
Encryption was produced using unique public key RSA-1024 generated for this computer.
To decrypted files, you need to obtain private key.
The single copy of the private key, with will allow you to decrypt the files, is locate on a secret server on the internet.
The server will destroy the key within 78 hours after encryption completed.
To retrieve the private key, you need to Contact us by email , send us an email your DECRYPT-ID-0ec69ed5-3c99-40f8-8544-0c7653dcd3e5 number
and wait for further instructions.
For you to be sure, that we can decrypt your files – you can send us a single encrypted file and we will send you back it in a decrypted form.
Please do not waste your time! You have 72 hours only! After that The Main Server will double your price!
E-MAILS ADRESS:
[email protected]
[email protected]

So as you can see, cyber criminals want you to contact them via email to get details about how much you have to pay to receive decryption key. That means it is not clear how much you need to pay as a ransom to the developers of Mole Ransomware.

However, we do not recommend to contact them and pay the ransom because there are no guarantees that you will retrieve your files even after doing it. Besides you would support cyber criminals by doing it, and that’s not a good thing to do.

Unfortunately there are no decryption tools for this ransomware at the moment, but we will keep you updated and inform about it as soon as it is ready. There is still a way to recover your files if you have a valid copy of your hard drive that was made before the date of infection. If you do have it, check out our system restore instructions.

Update of the 5th of June, 2017. Mole ransomware is now decryptable! Simply download the decrypter software from this site. 

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Mole 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 Mole Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Mole 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 Mole 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 Mole 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.

Manual removal