WininiCrypt Ransomware

Was your operating system corrupted by WininiCrypt Ransomware? If it was, your personal files are likely to be encrypted. After analyzing the malicious infection, our research team has found that it can encrypt files using the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm. After that, it uses the RSA cipher to encrypt the AES one. By doing this, the infection ensures that no one can crack the code and create a free file decryptor. At the time of research, the infection was inactive, and we are hopeful that that is the end of it; however, no one knows it. It might be that the C&C server is temporarily down and that the threat will start its attacks soon again. All in all, whether you are trying to defend yourself against this infection, or you are trying to delete it, we are here to help you. Removing WininiCrypt Ransomware might be not the easiest of tasks, but, of course, it must be done. Protecting the operating system against this malware can be tricky too, but it is necessary.

The distribution of the devious WininiCrypt Ransomware is still a mystery, and if we have more concrete information regarding this, we will inform you about it right away. Some of the most popular ways for cyber criminals to spread malware include spam emails and malicious installers. Overall, if WininiCrypt Ransomware has invaded your operating system, it is likely that you have executed it yourself. Since the infection is very silent, you are unlikely to notice it when it starts encrypting files. When it does, it should add the “.[cho.dambler@yandex.com]” extension to their names, and that might be the first sign of trouble. Besides encrypting files, it was found that WininiCrypt Ransomware also can delete them. Using the legitimate Microsoft’s SDelete tool the infection should create copies before encrypting them, and then remove the original files. It is unknown whether the threat downloads the code or has it integrated to be able to do that. On top of that, it eliminates shadow volume copies using the “vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet” command, which makes the recovery of files even more unlikely.

Once the files that WininiCrypt Ransomware targets are corrupted, it can introduce you to the file called HOW_TO_BACK_FILES.html. The page representing this ransom note is very similar to those linked to Globe Ransomware and GlobeImposter 2.0 Ransomware. Although the WininiCrypt infection was coded using the .NET 2.0 – which is not the same with the other two – we cannot confirm or deny if these threats were developed by the same party. The purpose of this ransom note, of course, is to make you email cho.dambler@yandex.com. If you do this, you should receive a response with another message or another link. Overall, the creator of WininiCrypt Ransomware must have developed this infection to make money, and it should do it using extortion. You could be promised a decryptor, a password, a private key, and similar things that allegedly could help you decrypt files as long as you pay a ransom. Do you know that that is what all ransomware threats promise? How many users do you think pay the ransom and end up recovering the files? Unfortunately, not that many. So, if you do not want to lose your money along with your files – which, unfortunately, are most likely lost for good – you should not pay the ransom.

It seems that WininiCrypt Ransomware runs using one file, which is also the executable. If you have acquired it yourself (i.e., you were tricked into downloading and opening it), you might have a chance to remove this threat manually. After that, you should get rid of the HOW_TO_BACK_FILES.html file. Remember to check for copies of this file. You should also check for malware leftovers. If they exist, a reliable malware scanner will help you identify them. Instead of getting rid of malicious infections manually, we suggest using anti-malware software because it will automatically delete WininiCrypt Ransomware and other malicious components. We recommend keeping it installed as well because only it can provide you with trustworthy full-time protection. One more thing we recommend doing is backing up files – if there is anything left to back up – so that you would not lose them in the future.

WininiCrypt Ransomware Removal

1. Identify the launcher of WininiCrypt Ransomware.
2. Right-click and Delete the launcher.
3. Delete the ransom note file HOW_TO_BACK_FILES.html.
4. Empty Recycle Bin to get rid of these components.
5. Install a trusted malware scanner to inspect your PC.