Vipasana ransomware - How to remove

Vipasana ransomware (or Vipassana ransomware) another bird of ill omen. In its true sense, the word ‘‘Vipassana’’ refers to a meditation practice in the Buddhist tradition. A quite dissonance for ransomware threats to be called such names. Ransomware viruses bear the highest degree of danger. These nightmarish viruses block the user’s access to his/her data, especially, the most valuable. Thus, they must be examined and preventative measures are to be taken against them. The presence of such threats as Vipasana ransomware is intolerable on one’s computer.

About Vipasana Ransomware

Vipasana cryptomalware uses a sophistication encryption algorithm. It is also called ‘‘offline’’ ransomware as it is capable of locking your data even when you are offline and not connected to the Internet. The cipher is said to be the popular AES involving two keys: the public and the private keys. The filename extension is overelaborate – [filename][email protected] 1.2.0.id-[random ID]-[date and time of encryption].[random three-letter file extension].CBF. The ransom note displayed by this file encoder (as a wallpaper on your desktop) is written in Russian, thus, we can speculate about its origin being Russian. The size of the ransom demanded is only to be known when the cyber crooks behind Vipasana encrypter are contacted by the given e-mail, which is [email protected]. The victims are required to approach the hackers in one week.

How is Vipasana Ransomware Spread?

Vipasana ransomware is spread via spam bots. These programs send spam e-mails to your e-mail account. The e-mails contain malicious links and/or malicious attachments. They can be disguised as links to must visit websites (relating your banking account, etc.) and/or the malicious files can pretend to be the important documents sent to you by official institutions (e.g. various invoices, etc.). You might also get e-mails from unknown senders which fall into the spam folder of your e-mail account. This Trojan Horse gets onto your computer once you follow the link and the malicious code is executed on your computer’s system. Exploit kits, such as Angler or Nuclear EK, may be involved in this. The same happens when you open the infected attachments and their malicious codes are started to be executed.

How to Decrypt Files Encrypted by Vipasana Ransomware?

At this moment, there is no decryption tool developed for Vipasana ransomware as it is a completely fresh ransomware virus. But as soon as security experts come up with the solution, we will provide you the clear instructions where to download the decryptor and how to use it to retrieve your data. Just do not contact the cyber criminals and do not fund them. You have no guarantees that they will send you the decryption key. And, you do not want to experience another such attack by an even improved Vipasana ransomware, do you?

For now, use backed up copies of your files. If you have not any such files, make sure to use some external storage devices (e.g. hard drives, etc.) or services (e.g. Cloud Services, etc.) in the future. You can give it a try for PhotoRec, Recuva, R-studio file recovery tools. They are not as effective as decryptors created by security experts, but it is still an option. Shadow Explorer may not work since advanced ransomwares tend to delete Shadow Volume Copies. Spyhunter or Hitman malware removal tools are to be exercised before file recovery since Vipasana ransomware can easily re-encrypt the data. You can have a look at our manual removal guide of the ransomware provided below. But automatic elimination is highly recommended since the encoding virus may have dropped additional malware onto your computer’s system.

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Vipasana 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 Vipasana ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Vipasana 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 Vipasana 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 Vipasana 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.