Zayka Ransomware

Zayka Ransomware can cause a lot of damage to you by encrypting your important files once it manages to infiltrate your system. This vicious program is indeed a new variant of the infamous CryptoMix Ransomware family that has given birth to several variants, including Noob Ransomware, Mole ransomware, and CryptoShield Ransomware. Although some of these variants have been hacked by malware hunters who created free tools for victims to be able to decrypt their files for free, right now we cannot tell you this about this particular threat. Unfortunately, this could mean the loss of your files if you do not have a backup somewhere safe like a removable drive. We do not advise you to send an e-mail to these crooks as you are instructed in the ransom note because contacting such cyber criminals usually does not end well. We also do not suggest that you should pay the ransom fee because that would be as good as supporting cybercrime and, on the other hand, there is little chance that you would get the decryption key anyway. Thus, we highly recommend that you remove Zayka Ransomwarefrom your computer as soon as possible.

As a matter of fact, if you keep some basic safety rules, you should be able to protect your system from most of the dangerous ransomware infections like this one. Let us tell you more about how this malicious program may be distributed so that you can be more prepared to avert such an attack. First thing you should keep in mind is that you need to be more cautious with your e-mails. Namely, when you receive mails even in your spam folder, you should make sure that the mail is meant for you personally and that it is for real. When in doubt, you can check the sender by running a Google search on the name and the office where the mail seems to have come from. The most important thing is not to open any file attachment in questionable e-mails because this ransomware may be spread as a malicious attached file in spam e-mails. Be always alert when you see a mail that claims to be about an unpaid invoice or fine, problems with your credit card details regarding an online shopping or flight booking, etc. Most people are inclined to open such mails even if these may land in the spam folder. You should not take your spam filter for granted. When you finally delete Zayka Ransomware, you should remember that this will not give your files back. This is why prevention is so important.

It is also likely that these criminals will try to exploit an application on your computer that has remote desktop access. If such software is not properly configured and has a weak password, crooks can relatively easily break into your system and initiate this attack manually. Thus, you should always use very strong passwords and preferably an anti-malware program to automatically protect your PC from similar attacks. Another possibility is called an Exploit Kit attack when you land on a malicious page that is created with a kit like Angler, which can drop this infection as soon as the page loads in your browser. Since this takes place silently, without your knowledge, this attack can also catch you by surprise. This is why it is so important that you keep your browsers and drivers updated as these attacks take advantage of the security bugs of older versions. We advise you to remove Zayka Ransomware the moment you notice its presence on your PC.

This dangerous infection can encrypt most of your important files leaving you no time to act or to stop the malicious process. The encoded files get a new, encrypted name as well as a “.ZAYKA” extension, so you will find “62D3A66B0242C2383782FDAD0B7FA13C.ZAYKA” and similar files instead of your old files. This way you can clearly see the damage if you list all the “.ZAYKA” files in your File Explorer. This ransomware drops a ransom note text file called “_HELP_INSTRUCTION.TXT,” which can contain two basic notes; one shorter and one longer version. This note informs you basically about the attack and that your files have been encrypted. You are told to send an e-mail to admin@zayka.pro as soon as possible because the price of the decryption key depends on how fast you are. These criminals do not reveal the exact amount they want to extort from you but it can be hundreds of dollars. We never encourage anyone to pay such ransom fees because there is no guarantee to get the decryption key but it is guaranteed that you transfer money to criminals, which can only help them to commit further online crimes. We advise you to delete Zayka Ransomware ASAP.

Since this ransomware program can start up automatically with your Windows every time you reboot your system, it is important for you to delete all possibly related tasks and Run registry entries. If you want to eliminate this threat manually, please follow our guide below. It is possible though that there are other malware threats on your machine and you cannot use your computer safely unless it is completely clean. In order to be able to defend your PC against all kinds of malware infections, we recommend that you use a decent malware removal application, such as SpyHunter.

Remove Zayka Ransomware from Windows

1. Press Win+E.
2. In the “%APPDATA%” folder, locate and delete the suspicious random-name file (e.g., “BC0EBCF2F2.exe”).
3. Delete all suspicious files that you have saved recently.
4. Empty the Recycle Bin.

Remove the malicious scheduled tasks

1. Tap Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
2. On the Start-up tab, find the suspicious program in the list and press Disable.
3. Close Task Manager.
4. Press Win+E.
5. Open the %WINDIR%\Tasks and %WINDIR%\System32\Tasks folders.
6. Delete the suspicious, random-name task.
7. Empty your Recycle bin.
8. Press Win+R and enter regedit. Press OK.
9. Delete the following suspicious, random-name value names:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\00FF0EBCF2F2 (value data: “C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\BC0EBCF2F2.exe”)
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\BC0EBCF2F2 (value data: “C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\BC0EBCF2F2.exe”)
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\*BC0EBCF2F2 (value data: “C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\BC0EBCF2F2.exe”)
10. Exit the editor and reboot your PC.