Usam Ransomware - How to remove

Usam is malware that encrypts (corrupts) files and breaks them. Its makers then ask victims to send money if they want to get their files back. While Usam likely doesn’t steal any files, it does come with a spyware trojan that does log contacts, credentials, and various other sensitive information. Now, Usam and the other malware need to be deleted, you need to change passwords and secure online accounts, and decide what to do with the files that Usam encrypted.

About Usam ransomware:

Classification	Ransomware, trojan.
How Usam works	Gets downloaded in infected installers, deletes backups and installs a trojan, encrypts user-created files so that they are basically corrupted.
How to restore the encrypted files	Restore the files from a backup, use data recovery programs, repair the encrypted files to remove the corrupted parts, try the free decryptor.
Removing Usam	Repair the Task Manager and the hosts file, delete Usam (with Spyhunter or any antivirus program that you trust), up your system security, install updates, change passwords.

What is Usam

Usam is the newest member of the malicious Djvu ransomware family. Some common traits of these malicious programs include:

• Spreading in pirating sites, infecting torrents, being downloaded off of fake (spoofed) websites.
• Installing a spyware trojan which then installs adware and steals people’s passwords and payment information.
• Blocking various websites, disabling the antivirus program, disabling the Task Manager, sometimes crashing Windows.
• Deleting restore points and backups.
• Encrypting user files and renaming them.

In Usam’s case, it renames files by appending “.usam” to their names. So, instead of “text.txt”, you get “text.txt.usam”. Windows no longer recognizes the files and refuses to open them.

Even if you rename the Usam-encrypted files (don’t do that unless you made backups of the encrypted files), most of them still can’t be opened. If you do open them, you usually get gibberish, as if the files are corrupted. Which they were, as encryption is meant to make information unreadable.

Why Usam does this becomes clear when you find its ransom notes. In them, Usam’s creators demand $490 up to $980 in exchange for the decryption key and the decryptor (which is reportedly unreliable and difficult to use). Usam’s creators have been at this for a very long time, with Nypd and Zipe being a few of their latest efforts. Their business must be going well, which is very unfortunate. Avoid paying the ransom if you can.

How to repair Usam files

Usam ransomware breaks user files. Unless you fall into the lucky group of those for whom Usam failed to download a unique encryption ID (to find out if that’s the case, scan your files with the Emsisoft decryptor), the files that Usam encrypted are done. Encryption is not reversible without the decryption key, which the cybercriminals behind Usam are asking up to $980 for.

Assuming you didn’t have a backup of your files, here are your options:

• Use data recovery software. This is risky because many of these programs are paid and the results depend on your circumstances. Still, you may be able to get back some of the data that Usam deleted (file backups, shadow volume copies, etc.) this way.
• Look in all the folders, maybe Usam skipped a few and left some of your files untouched.
• Repair files manually. The good news is that Usam skips portions of files nad leaves them unencrypted to save time. You can use data repair tools to restore the unencrypted data. The bad news is, this only applies to large files, such as file archives, images, videos, audio files, databases, etc. It is a laborious process and some data is still lost. Also, text files, documents, and similar smaller files are usually mostly or entirely encrypted and have no data to be recovered.
• Keep the files. Wait for the criminals responsible for Usam to get found and arrested or to grow a sense of guilt and release the decryption keys for everyone. It’s happened before with other ransomware, but it is very unlikely.

Most importantly do not fall for scammers. Usam’s desperate victims will be out there, looking for ways to get their data back, and scammers know this. Even if someone proves themselves by repairing a couple of your files that Usam broke, don’t trust them – Usam’s makers also offer to repair files for free to prove that they can. Scammers can’t do anything more than you.

That Emsisoft decryptor was made by the number one expert on Djvu ransomware, the same guy who figured out how to decrypt older Djvu files before the criminals improved their encryption methods. Sometimes, encryption is just that good – there’s no way around it.

How to remove Usam ransomware

Unlike repairing your files, removing Usam ransomware is easy enough:

• repair the hosts file as described below to unblock websites that Usam blocked,
• restore the usage of the Task Manager,
• get an antivirus program (whatever program you trust, for example, Spyhunter) to scan your computer and remove Usam, the spyware trojan, and any other malware.

Make sure that your operating system, browser, and other programs have the latest security updates installed. In addition, you might want to change your passwords.

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/).

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