RobinHood Ransomware - How to remove

RobinHood Ransomware was discovered no a while ago and it seems that it’s a pretty dangerous one – it uses AES encryption algorithm, the same as Diablo6 ransomware, so it can cause you all sorts of problems.

First of all, this infection is categorised as ransomware because it tries to encrypt files stored on the computer and then ask for the ransom to be paid in order to provide the decryptor which could solve the problem. It was discovered by S!Ri and announced on the Twitter post (1).

While methods of infecting computers and malicious processes performed on the infected system are pretty common, this ransomware has a rare political background. That can be easily noticed by reading the message displayed on the desktop once the computer is infected. It says:

Help Yemen!!!
Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is Killing poor and innocent people of Yemen by bombing , creating famine and disease!
You as a Saudian or a Supporter of their activities, are partner of his homicide.
So you have been subjected to a ransomware attack and must accept one of the following:
a) Giving up all your information.
b) Pay five Bitcoins to help Yemeni people.
bitcoin address = 1ENn1BekzKXBobGuAFE1Yrin3e3vBjUAQH and send transaction link to: [email protected]
c) Use Tweeter to condemn Bin Salman for his crimes and ask him to stop the war against Yemen and make 100 users to retweet.
You have only 72:00 hours left.

As you can see, it seems like this ransomware is targeted against Saudi Arabia and terror in Yemen, where innocent people are being killed every single day. Developers of this ransomware states that if your computer is infected with RobinHood ransomware, you are somehow connected with Saudi Arabia. However, we find that to be misleading as this virus can infected any computer, regardless the political position of its’ owner. RobinHood name was chosen not by the accident – it’s like a metaphor for helping poor people in Yemen. Yet we doubt that any of the ransom money would be transferred to help those in need in Yemen.

Once inside of the computer, RobinHood ransomware will scan all files stored on the hard drive and infect them by adding .robinhood extension to the end of every single one of them.

If your computer is infected with this ransomware virus, you will notice it immediately – your desktop picture will be changed and 2 new files placed on it – “ROBINHOOD -TIMER.exe” and “READ_IT.txt”.

This virus features a common technique to scare people – they are encouraged to pay the ransom within the next 72 hours, otherwise decryption key will be deleted and all those encrypted files will be lost forever. However, we don’t recommend to do that. RobinHood asks for 5 Bitcoins, which converts into around $2800 – that’s a lot of money and there are no guarantees that you will retrieve your files because you can’t trust cyber criminals.

Unfortunately, there is no way to decrypt files that were encrypted using AES encryption algorithm, so the only way left is to restore them from the back up. Yet you can do that only if you have a valid copy of your hard drive. Nevertheless, you should immediately remove this infection from your computer, even though it won’t unlock your files. The best way to do that is to use anti-malware software, such as Spyhunter. Scan your computer with it and the virus will be automatically gone in several minutes. This program will also provide you with real time protection against malware like this, so you will be assured that nothing like this will happen in the future.

Reference:

1. RobinHood Ransomware – twitter.com

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore RobinHood 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 RobinHood 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 RobinHood 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