Npsk Ransomware - How to remove

Npsk is a new version of Djvu ransomware. It comes from pirating sites, infects your computer with a spyware trojan, and then locks your files, giving them a second extension “.npsk”. And repairing those files might not even be possible (though some options do exist). Dealing with an Npsk infection can be frustrating if you didn’t have a backup for your files.

In short about Npsk:

Type of threat	Ransomware, trojan.
How Npsk spreads	Downloaded from pirating sites, downloaded as fake free software.
How to get your files back	Restore from backups, use data recovery and restore previous file versions, use the free decrypter, repair files.
How to remove Npsk	Use anti-malware programs (Spyhunter, etc.), delete suspicious downloaded files and don’t re-download them, protect yourself against spyware, secure your browsing.

Npsk ransomware

Npsk spreads by infecting files that are uploaded on pirating sites. Key generators, cracking tools, and free “unlocked” installers, usually. You run the infected file and Npsk gets downloaded and starts working.

Npsk is a serious piece of malware:

• it breaks most files, making them unreadable and unopenable,
• it downloads and installs a piece of spyware,
• it messes with some system settings and blocks certain websites from loading,
• it deletes backup files,
• it tries to delete antivirus updates to break the security program.

This can be devastating for those people who don’t have backups of their files. Backups – periodically saving your files on a device separate from your computer – are great at protecting you from ransomware’s worst effects. But, whether you had backups or not, there are a few tasks ahead of you:

• unblock the security sites,
• update your antivirus program,
• get rid of the Npsk ransomware and the spyware infection,
• set new passwords,
• see if you can restore your files,
• protect your computer against further attacks.

Alternatively, you can reformat your C drive and reinstall Windows, but that might not be necessary.

How to restore your files

Npsk ransomware uses cryptography to lock files. It uses math to scramble your files in such a way that destroys the data.

To see an example, find a file on your computer that used to be a text file. Any file whose name ends with “.txt.npsk”. Open it in Notepad. You should see a bunch of random symbols instead of whatever text used to be there.

This happens to almost all the other Npsk files, too: images, documents, spreadsheets, archives, etc.

Don’t change your files without making backups first. Also, don’t rename your files to remove the extension. The files are broken on the inside, and with some exceptions, changing their names won’t fix them as programs will still fail to open them.

Free decryption

However, encryption is not irreversible. It can be completely undone if you have two items: the decryption program and the decryption key. The decryption program is available for everyone – Emsisoft released it a while ago. The other half of the puzzle, the decryption key, is unique to each victim and only the criminals behind Npsk have them all. However, it’s dangerous to contact these criminals: they ask for up to $980 for the key, and there’s no way to guarantee that they don’t scam you. If you do decide to contact these people, absolutely do not give them any of your personal information. Make a new email account and use a device that’s free of spyware.

The only exception is when Npsk runs offline, failing to download your unique encryption key. The _readme.txt files and the C:/Systemid/Personalid.txt is a file that Npsk creates include an id (different than a key, but related). Ids associated with offline keys tend to end with “t1”. This has been the case in many previous Djvu ransomware infections, such as Alka, Topi, Nosu, and others. If/when someone buys a decryption key and it turns out to be the offline one, if they share it with Emsisoft, everyone else whose files were encrypted by the offline key can get them decrypted for free.

A _readme.txt file:

ATTENTION!

Don’t worry, you can return all your files!

All your files like photos, databases, documents and other important are encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key.

The only method of recovering files is to purchase decrypt tool and unique key for you.

This software will decrypt all your encrypted files.

What guarantees you have?

You can send one of your encrypted file from your PC and we decrypt it for free.

But we can decrypt only 1 file for free. File must not contain valuable information.

You can get and look video overview decrypt tool:

…

Price of private key and decrypt software is $980.

Discount 50% available if you contact us first 72 hours, that’s price for you is $490.

Please note that you’ll never restore your data without payment.

Check your e-mail “Spam” or “Junk” folder if you don’t get answer more than 6 hours.

Other methods

Here’s a blog post about how to restore portions of encrypted images (JPEG). You can rename Zip, Rar, and other archive files to remove “.npsk” and try to open them – some of the archived files should be okay. Portions of audio and video files should also be fine.

Npsk only encrypts parts of big files, which means that some data in your files is still okay. However, restoring it is hard and requires technical knowledge. The best you can do might be to put the files you care about in a safe spot so that you can look for solutions later.

At the bottom of this post, there is some other advice, such as to use a data recovery program to restore deleted files. This can help you get your data back, as long as you used the infected computer very little or not at all. You only have one chance to do data recovery well, so be careful.

How to remove Npsk

A good antivirus program is the best way to remove Npsk. This ransomware doesn’t spread like a virus, so it shouldn’t have infected any of your removable media or the local network. Just scan your computer with a security program and it should find and remove all the malware.

Of course, you need to fix your hosts file first, or else you might not be able to download any anti-malware tools. The instructions for how to do that are below.

Another note is to delete whatever file infected your machine in the first place. Npsk spreads with illegally downloaded programs, mostly. So, delete all the suspicious files that you downloaded and opened before the infection to avoid getting reinfected.

The spyware that Npsk may have installed is serious and can steal data saved in your browser, take screenshots, etc. If you don’t use a password manager, you should probably set new passwords to avoid having your accounts hacked.

Important -- edit the hosts file to unblock security websites

TL DR : The hosts file is edited to block security sites Before the virus can be removed, it's necessary to fix the hosts file (the file which controls which addresses connect to which IPs). That is the reason the majority of security websites is inaccessible when infected with this particular parasite. This infection edits this file to stop certain websites, including anti-malware download sites, from being accessed from the infected computer, making browsers return the "This site can't be reached" error. Luckily, it's trivial to fix the file and remove the edits that were made to it.

Find and edit the hosts file

The hosts file can be found on C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts. If you don't see it, change the settings to see hidden files.

1. In the Start Menu, search for Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, find Appearance and Personalization.
3. Select Folder Options.
4. Open the View tab.
5. Open Advanced settings.
6. Select "Show hidden files...".
7. Select OK.

Open this file with administrator privileges.

1. Open the Start Menu and enter "notepad".
2. When Notepad shows up in the result, right-click on it.
3. In the menu, choose "Run as administrator"
4. File->Open and browse for the hosts file.

The hosts file should look like this: Delete additional lines that they connect various domain names to the wrong IP address. Save the file.

Download and run the antivirus program

After that, download antivirus programs and use them to remove the ransomware, the trojan, and other malware. Spyhunter (https://www.2-viruses.com/reviews/spyhunter/dwnld/).

Automatic Malware removal tools

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore Npsk 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 Npsk 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 Npsk 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.