WastedLocker Ransomware - How to remove

WastedLocker is a type of ransomware, a family of malware that includes Garminwasted, Hard2decrypt, Seccrypt, Viamwasted, and other variants. Attacks by WastedLocker leave files broken, impossible to open. Interestingly, this ransomware creates a separate ransom note for each and every encrypted file.

WastedLocker ransomware is known for attacking big companies, but small businesses and individual users may also be vulnerable.

About WastedLocker:

Threat type	Ransomware, trojan, spyware.
WastedLocker infection symptoms	Files are encrypted and can’t be opened or read, their names/file types are changed, ransom notes created for each encrypted file.
Can you restore the encrypted data?	Restore backups, use data recovery tools.
How to delete WastedLocker and other malware	Use antivirus programs (Spyhunter, Malwarebytes, others) to find and delete all malware, reset passwords and use multi-factor authentication to stop accounts from being hacked.

How WastedLocker works

WastedLocker uses phishing to infect computers

Generally, WastedLocker is delivered by a specially crafted campaign, where the criminals target a specific business or organization. The operators of WastedLocker are interested in big fish, their ransom demands are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But individual users and small businesses are also vulnerable.

WastedLocker uses various tactics to infect computers and networks:

• fake software updates and other malicious ads,
• RDP account hacking,
• spyware infections, backdoors, and remote access trojans.

The operators of WastedLocker attack company employees with phishing emails, fake browser update alerts, and other manipulative tactics (How ransomware spreads).

Spyware is used to steal administrator credentials which can be used to infect more computers and access more files that could be encrypted.

One of the things that makes WastedLocker so dangerous is that it gets around some cybersecurity and anti-ransomware software, both automatically and with the help of the extortionists who manually guide the infection process (Ransomware: The tricks used by WastedLocker to make it one of the most dangerous cyber threats).

It encrypts and renames files

WastedLocker finds and encrypts documents, media files, archives, databases, and various other files (What is encryption).

It marks the encrypted files by changing their names – appending a second extension.

These extensions are different every time, but they often include the word “wasted”, such as “Saverswasted”. In addition, WastedLocker creates an info file for each and every encrypted file. This info file stores the ransom note, which shares the email address to contact the extortionists.

For example, when a file called video.avi gets encrypted by WastedLocker’s Saverswasted variant, its name is changed to video.avi.saverswasted. A new file video.avi.saverswasted_info is created that stores the ransom note.

Here’s what the ransom note might say:

Your network has been penetrated.

All files on each host in the network have been encrypted with a strong algorythm.

Backups were either encrypted or deleted.

Do not rename or move the encrypted files.

To get the files back contact us at: [email address] or [email address]

Like most modern ransomware, WastedLocker tries to infect cloud backups and all network storage. Therefore, some victims risk having their backups encrypted.

But there’s also some good news – WastedLocker isn’t known to steal data or threaten to leak it (Threat spotlight: WastedLocker, customized ransomware). This is in contrast to ransomware like Nefilim which does steal data.

Can you restore the lost data?

Recovering from ransomware attacks is hard, there’s a lot to do:

• Remove all malware from the infected computers.
• Reset all credentials that might have been stolen.
• Recover the lost data.

Check your backups first to make sure that they’re fine. Cloud backups could have been compromised by WastedLocker.

If you don’t have backups or if you lost some files, then try a data recovery program – a tool to undelete files, like EaseUS. You might get something valuable, provided data hasn’t been overwritten yet.

How to delete WastedLocker

Antivirus programs detect WastedLocker as Trojan, Ransom, Malicious, Encoder, Crypt, and even as WastedLocker (Virustotal.com). You can use antivirus tools, such as Spyhunter or Malwarebytes, to detect and remove all malware. Just remember that deleting WastedLocker does not fix the file that it encrypted.

Remember to reset your passwords so that, if they were stolen, they can’t be used to access your accounts.

Automatic Malware removal tools

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

 

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

Step 3. Restore WastedLocker 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 WastedLocker 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 WastedLocker 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.