[panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 Virus - How to remove

Acuf2 is the name of a cryptovirus that targets Windows computers and mostly affects small businesses, though individual home users are not immune. File-encrypting viruses aren’t rare and can be very profitable for the criminals who develop and distribute them, with the ransom amount hovering around a few thousand dollars. The victims risk losing all of their valuable data as, at the moment, there is no free decrypter for Acuf2 files. An attack by this virus is potentially devastating.

Dharma/CrySiS is one of the many currently active cryptovirus families. It includes USA, KICK, save, and other examples. It can infect not just the machine it lands on, but also network-attached storage. And, to make things easier for itself, Acuf2 tries to uninstall your antivirus applications.

Features of the Acuf2 ransomware

Acuf2 can lock most file types (documents, media, text files, databases, archives) regardless of whether administrator permissions are required. The virus locks files quickly, by only encrypting parts of large files. The speedy process is unlikely to be noticed and interrupted. After it’s done, you will notice a few symptoms:

• A pop-up window info.hta opens, announcing “All your files have been encrypted!”.
• Files have the “.id-[random].[panama777@tutanota].Acuf2” extension appended to their names.
• Those files will not open normally.
• Installed antivirus program does not function.

The text in the Acuf2 pop-up:

All your files have been encrypted!

All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC. If you want to restore them, write us to the e-mail [email protected]
Write this ID in the title of your message AAAAAAAA
In case of no answer in 24 hours write us to theese e-mails:[email protected]
You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. The price depends on how fast you write to us. After payment we will send you the decryption tool that will decrypt all your files.

Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 1 file for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 1Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)

How to obtain Bitcoins
The easiest way to buy bitcoins is LocalBitcoins site. You have to register, click ‘Buy bitcoins’, and select the seller by payment method and price.
https://localbitcoins. com/buy_bitcoins
Also you can find other places to buy Bitcoins and beginners guide here:
http://www.coindesk. com/information/how-can-i-buy-bitcoins/

Attention!

• Do not rename encrypted files.
• Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
• Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

Acuf2 uses a few distribution methods, whichever it was in your case, make sure to plug that security hole so that an attack like this does not repeat:

• Targeted attacks on Remote Desktop connection.
  Leaked or weak credentials protecting an RDP account are going to be used to access a computer remotely and install malware, in this case — Acuf2. Such a connection can also be used to steal data and install spyware and trojans.
• Malicious spam emails.
  Impersonal emails that are crafted to appear urgent and necessarily include either a link or an attached file might be distributing malware, often — ransomware. Acuf2 could start encryption as soon as an archive is unpacked, or macros are enabled for the malicious file that arrived on the spam email.

Other ways that malware is distributed include malicious ads, infected files uploaded online disguised as wanted programs, and malware being downloaded by previously installed trojans.

The ways to reduce your risk of being infected with ransomware include updating all of your software to the latest security patches, scanning all new files, Setting up offline backups, securing RDP with VPN and other measures. No way is guaranteed to protect you against Acuf2, but backups are the most effective.

How to remove Acuf2 virus

Any professional antivirus program (Spyhunter) should be able to find the Acuf2 virus, after all, it’s remarkably well-detected by various antivirus tools as seen on VirusTotal. However, malicious processes might interfere with the removal process. Detect and stop them by following this article. Don’t use your infected machine normally until you’ve made sure that all malware is gone.

Automatic Malware removal tools

 

How to recover files locked by Acuf2

After the earliest versions of Dharma was decrypted by Kaspersky, the criminals did not give up. Instead, they improved the virus and continued releasing and spreading it. Currently, the many versions of Dharma and Phobos do not have any free decryption tools and have not been cracked. Even if a decryptor was available, it would be useless without Acuf2’s decryption keys, which are unique to each victim.

If you’re tempted to pay the ransom to fix the damage that Acuf2 caused, be ready for disappointment. It’s common to hear stories about the victims who paid being either ignored or demanded more money. This CyberEdge report has some statistics on how often ransomware victims get their data back.

Luckily, a few other ways to restore lost data exist. They’re listed in the below guide. The combination of data recovery and system restore might be helpful, though it’s much less certain than restoring files from full backups.

How to recover [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 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 [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 Virus has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 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 [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 Virus. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 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 [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 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 [panama777@tutanota].Acuf2 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.